


Re-Do

by MarstheDandelion



Category: Dude That's My Ghost!
Genre: AU, And spencer is an adventure time film geek, Im tired rn, M/M, Still, Where billy is a hobo rockstar, ectofeature, i dunno
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-24 08:57:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 33,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6148315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarstheDandelion/pseuds/MarstheDandelion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It made him think, if either of them hadn't been there that day, would things be the way they are now?<br/> It's just an au</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Cobra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to do that thing where I tell you that I don't own any of these characters, so here it is (is that even necessary)

Spencer looked at himself in the mirror: brown hair, stupid glasses, freckles on his nose; he looked completely ordinary, except for is eyes. Yep his eyes were the only thing that stood out on him, his stupid hazel-green eyes. Yes, according to the internet green eyes were the rarest eye colour in the world, and he should feel special, but he hated them.

“Spencer, hurry up, you're not the only one that uses a bathroom y’know,” a voice said from behind the door, interrupting his thoughts. He sighed, splashing water on his face.

Mornings were always like this, they were always annoying. Spencer was always the first one up, but his stupid brain kept him in the bathroom for hours, thinking about unimportant things. By now it was routine, he'd wake up and go for a wizz, and he'd stay there until Jessica came banging on the door. He'd look at his stupid face and think of how stupid he was. Maybe that's why he always went to school in a bad mood.

He'd open the bathroom door only to be met with angry green eyes, almost identical to his own- if eyes weren't already identical- the two of them would glare at each other until Jessica decided to mutter something about him needing a girlfriend, and then push past him.

It happened everyday, he was beginning to tire of it. He opened the bathroom door, but this time he walked right past Jessica, back into his own room; he didn't want to deal with this, not today at least.

He glanced around the room and noticed everything that was always there, but never really paid attention to; the red walls that were almost completely hidden behind movie posters, a shelf in the left corner filled with movies, and a shelf in the right filled with everything else- books, videos games, those dolls that Jessica swore were dolls, but were actually action figures, and countless pieces of paper. He glanced to his desk; very plain and wooden with an equally plain lamp sitting on top, and his laptop, which had a collection of stickers stuck on random places.

He wondered. He wondered if those jerks at school were right, he was going to be 18 soon, but his room still looked vaguely similar to the way it did when he was 10. A world full of cameras and films; video games and anime, special effects and movie props, would he really grow up to be some lonely geek? Still living in his parents basement, chasing this childish dream he had, to one day make movies and be on the big screen? What did his future hold for him, would he really be going to film school? Could he even get in?

Suddenly he heard a noise, it was a beep- no a horn, the sound of a car horn, and it sounded a lot like Shainilla’s. It couldn't be- could it?

Spencer doubtfully looked at his watch, _there's no way it's 7 yet_ , but sure enough the clock read 07:05.

_Shit!_

He quickly grabbed a pair of jeans from his floor - they probably hadn't been washed in weeks- and a big ass Adventure Time t- shirt his grandma had bought him 2 years ago, insisting he'd ‘grow into it’. Apparently she also had a hard time remember how old he was. 

He stuck his feet halfway into his worn out converse, grabbed his bag, and ran out the door.

“Just woke up?” Shanilla asked with a smile, a smile that Spencer could tell was forced.

His cheeks turned a slight shade of red, he wanted to apologise. He honestly should have apologised, but he didn't. He knew he was burden he seriously didn't understand why Shanilla continued to bring him to school. He knew her smile was her way of trying to make it seem like it was okay; it was her way of trying to spare his feelings because she was too nice to yell or complain; he felt terrible. 

The ride to school was silent. The silence was filled with tension, no one wanted to speak about what was actually on their mind; that if you were late to class too many times you'd get detention.

You got 2 hours Saturday or Sunday, the hours could be taken all at once, or they could be taken a day a part, but either way no one had the time or patience to want to go. If they wanted to yell Spencer wanted them to get it over with, if they wanted to stop taking him to school they could just say it, he was the cause of these problems, so he wanted face the consequences, but instead no one said anything.

Pulling up to school always made Spencer feel depressed. It was like the building just gave off these waves of sadness; he wondered if he was the only one who could feel it. _Did anyone else instantly want to die when they got here?_ Spencer wondered.

It was around 07:10 when they got to school, there were 5 minutes until the bell, but when you had to visit a locker that was nowhere near your first period, time was shortened greatly.

Rajeev and Shanilla muttered a ‘see ya’, and made their way to class, Spencer on the other hand made his way up to his locker.

The inside was decorated with stickers and pictures and posters he - and Rajeev and Shanilla- had collected over the years. They'd been friends for 4 years, but Spencer was beginning to think whatever they had would soon be over. Sure getting detention is a pretty petty thing to ruin a friendship over, but when the detention was over something as stupid as getting to class late too many times,irritation was understood.

He thought back to the day, they were at freshman connection.

Spencer did not want to be there, but his mother insisted that it'd be a great way to make friends.  
The three of them had been paired up in a sort of speed date game, and they'd been friends ever since then. It was sad to think it was coming to an end.

Spencer sighed, closing his locker, he'd also managed to, in the midst of his scurrying, forget his book. So not only was he going to be late for first period, he was also unprepared. _What else could go wrong_?

And as if some greater being had been out to get him this whole time, he tripped running up the stairs.

_Ghaa!_

Once he made it to the door of his first period an idea hit him, he could just skip the class; there was no penalty for skipping a period. He could just come back later and go straight to second period, _why hadn't I thought of this before?_

He turned to leave, when someone ran into him. _Again?_ This was the second time today he'd been on the dirty school floor.

_I hope this doesn't become a habit._

“Whoa, watch where you're going brometheus,” the person said; he had shoulder length black hair, and brown eyes, and was carrying something Spencer couldn't make out.

“What do you mean, you bumped into me,” Spencer whined, but before he could finish his sentence the figure was gone.

_What? _But he didn’t have time to question what was happening because as soon as the guy was gone - it could've been a girl, but judging by the voice….- principal Ponzi came from around the corner.__

Spencer wanted to laugh, the guy was miraculously bald, miraculous because he wasn't bald when Spencer saw him this morning, but now…

“Oh, so you think this is funny?” Ponzi yelled, looking at the slight smirk on Spencer's face.

“I-” Spencer started, only to be pulled by Ponzi.

“Let's go.”

_But..._

Spencer tried to ease his mind. _So this is what it's like to be in trouble, huh?_

He walked cautiously down the hall along the side of Ponzi. Whatever that guy’d done really pissed Ponzi off. Now Spencer didn’t really have a problem with Ponzi, he felt nothing for him to be honest, but during this moment he felt bad.

Ponzi wasn't the best guy in the world, heck there were so many people that were better than him, but if the school had caught on fire and Spencer had the chance to save one person, assuming Shanilla and Rajeev had made it out okay, that someone would be Ponzi.

You see you had to look at things both ways, sure the guy was a jerk to pretty much everyone, but if you had to spend your days here with hundreds of smelly, annoying teens, you'd probably feel the same. And it wasn't even about whether you loved the job or not, because with everything, even things you love, there was always something bad that could be found in it. So that's why Spencer didn't hate Ponzi, he somewhat understood what the guy had to go through, or at least tried to.

“Uh, principal Ponzi,” Spencer called hesitantly, “am I in trouble?”

“Oh, you are in more than just trouble, once I find that partner of yours I will suspend you so good,” he explained.

“Partner? Mr. Ponzi I don't even know that guy.”

“Yea, yea, that's what all the suspects say, every year someone fools me with the guilt trick, but this year I'm not having any of it,” Ponzi established.

“But-”

“Go to my office, I'm sick of talking to you, wait for me in there.” And with that Ponzi was done talking.

Spencer, obviously, went to his office. There were just some people you didn't disobey, and even though Spencer wouldn't have disobeyed any teacher, he knew he had the ability to. But disobeying Ponzi? That thought hadn't even come to his mind. Besides, he was already in enough trouble as it was.

He wanted to laugh. _This day just can't get any worse than this can it?_

Either way it seemed ass though Spencer was doomed. If he'd’ve gone to class he would've ended up in detention, and even now he's in trouble. What was the world trying to tell him? Why was it so content on ruining his day. _Ironic._

More importantly, how was he going to explain this to his parents? He'd already disappointed them so many times before, but getting detention, and maybe even suspension? That was a new low. Just how mad would they be? Especially for something like this? 

“Oh, hello Mr. and Mrs. Wright, your son is being suspended for a prank that he was even part of.”

And what if they didn't even believe him when he tried to defend himself? Spencer groaned to himself, he was in so deep.

After a few minutes of sitting in that bland office alone- lime walls, and brown furniture- the door opened and in walked the guy, and not far behind Ponzi.

The boy gave Spencer a puzzled look, but took a seat next to him. Ponzi also had his hair back. Spencer would have smiled, he might've even laughed, if he hadn’t been so tense.

“Mr. Cohen, I am done dealing with your pranks, how many more time are you going to continue to steal from me? Once you turn 18 you're no longer a juvenile, and you can, and will go to jail if this continues. Do you even care about your future?” Ponzi yelled, and even though it wasn't even aimed at Spencer, he wanted to cry. 

He hated being yelled at, he hated being in trouble, it made his heart beat so fast, and his head hurt, and he had a hard time breathing; it was all so bad. He knew most people didn't like him, but if they yelled that just proved it more. And maybe that's what he was afraid of most. Would his parents yell at him for this, would they hate him too? He was beginning to run out of people to turn to. First Rajeev and Shanilla, and now his parents. Not to mention Jessica, who Spencer was convinced he'd lost a long time ago.

“Whatever Ponzi, you say the same things over and over again, and maybe one day it'll get through here,” he pointed to his head, “ but…. what does this guy have to do with any of this?”

Ponzi’s eyes narrowed. “ Don't play games with me Cohen, I caught your little sidekick, and now the both of you are going down.”

“Look Ponzi, I’m a man of my own work, I don't need you chucking some dork in, trying to make him seem like the mastermind behind all this. Besides, The Cobra works alone, always has, always will,” the boy explained, putting his hands behind his head with a smirk.

Ponzi hesitated, maybe he was wrong.

He glanced at the boy sitting across from him, he sat staring down at the floor, but Ponzi could still tell he'd either been crying, or was going to start and ponzi wasn't good with tears.

He cleared his throat, “ well, I suppose, since this is your first infraction, Mr. Wright, that I will just let you off with a warning, but don't let it happen again.”

The boy smirked, causing Principal Ponzi to grimace.

“Just get out, I'll be seeing you for detention this Saturday Mr. Cohen, 7 a.m. sharp, don't forget” he finished. 

The man sighed as he heard the door shut.

Thank him, Spencer thought. Do it so he won't hate you. He hesitated, why was this so hard. Say it before he's gone.

“Thank you,” Spencer blurted out after the boy. He didn't know why, but he felt weak. It was over wasn't it? He wasn't going to be in trouble, he wasn't getting detention or suspension, and now he had a perfect excuse as to why he'd be late for first period. All his problems had been fixed, but he couldn't help the feeling.

The boy turned around with as smirk, and held up his thumb, then walked off.

Spencer hadn't even gotten his name, but he was a student here, so _maybe_ he'd see him again.

There was something strange about that guy, the way he couldn't give a care about the things Ponzi was saying. Spencer had thought numerous times about his future, and it scared him. But that guy didn't even flinch when Ponzi mentioned jail. 

_How can you be so calm?_

Spencer watched as the boy walked further and further away from his view.

**....**

He'd been caught. He wanted to laugh. 

It's about time Ponzi, I thought you were beginning to get old, Billy had thought

“Oh, Baruch, you've really done it now!” Ponzi hissed.

“Billy,” he corrected, to which Ponzi responded with an eye roll.

He walked with a smirk into the man's office, but was met with a face. 

This is the guy I ran into… what's he doing here?

He looked at the boy with a confused look on his face, but took a seat next to him anyway.

Then Ponzi got to yelling. At times like these Billy just focused really hard on something to drown him out, maybe that bookshelf that he swore held fake books, or that plant in Ponzi’s corner that he knew was fake, but today he was having a hard time doing that. He kept glancing at the boy sitting next to him, he kept popping into Billy's head; he looked like he was in some sort of pain.. _why was he even here?_

He then noticed that Ponzi had stopped talking, and sighed with relief.

“Whatever Ponzi, you say the same things over and over again, and maybe _one day_ it'll get through here, but…. what does this guy have to do with any of this?” he asked gesturing to the boy sitting beside him.

The man narrowed his eyes, “ don't play games with me Cohen, I caught your little sidekick, and now the both of you are going down.”

 _Going down?_ Billy thought, _does anyone even say that anymore?_

“Look Ponzi, I’m a man of my own work, I don't need you chucking some dork in, trying to make him seem like the mastermind behind all this. Besides, The Cobra works alone, always has, always will,” he explained smirking.

He watched as Ponzi glanced between him and the boy, he loved it when Ponzi was wrong.

_Serves him right for always assuming._

Besides, Billy didn't want to get the guy in trouble, especially this dork, he couldn't make it in detention, the poor guy would probably have a heart attack or something.

He watched as Ponzi choked out his attempt at an apology.

_Since this was your first infraction my ass, Ha! He didn't even do anything, get off your high horse dude._

Billy wanted to laugh in the man's face, he was wrong. Why couldn't he accept that?

Maybe it was because he was angry, or because he felt embarrassed, but Ponzi kicked them out about 2 seconds later. He'd said something else, but Billy had no interest in finding out what it was.

He wanted to go home, well not home per se, but he didn’t want to be here. You see home was not a place that Billy liked to be, which is why he'd moved out a few months ago. 

His mother was tired of him constantly getting suspended. He'd gotten suspended so many times he was now on probation, granted most of those were for petty, ridiculous reasons.

Billy didn't see the problem with it, but his mother insisted that as long as he lived under her roof that she still had control over him.

To which he responded with a slam of his bedroom door, and a few days later he'd temporarily moved into a motel a few blocks away from the school.

Besides, Billy knew that Ponzi was out to get him, But now.. what else could happen to him?

He'd be 18 in a few months, and his probation would be over, even if it was extended it wouldn't last for long.

And that jail thing Ponzi was always going on about? Yea right. Billy would be gone way before that had a chance to happen.

At this moment he was planning a get away; he was planning to run away. Well, maybe not “runaway” since he’d kinda already done that, but he wanted to get out of this town. Unfortunately, this was the one thing he couldn't do on his own, which was why he was still here.

“Thank you,” he heard from behind him, he'd forgotten about that guy. Billy turned around with a smile and give him a thumbs up. What was he thanking me for?

Billy made it back to his room, his real room, his mom was at work during this time, so every now and then he'd come to get his things, it was beginning to look pretty barren. He'd sold most of his furniture, in all honesty he never really had much. He'd tried to sell everything from his bedroom but he couldn't make money from most of it, and he couldn't bring it with him when he left, so he was forced to get rid of it.

He'd had a pillow, some blankets, a flashlight and his guitar; that was all. All of his clothes were either thrown out or in his bag, and that's pretty much all he had. There were a few cds, but he planned on getting rid of them. He had to get out of his motel room soon, he'd already paid for his last day, and as soon as the room was booked by someone else he'd be out. 

Of course it was hard to get a lot of stuff done when you weren’t 18 yet, but with a fake ID all those problems went away. Besides, he'd be 18 in a few months? How much older can you get in that amount of time? Not much. You might as well be treated as an adult once you hit 17- or at least that's how Billy saw it.

He grabbed the stack of CD’s and made his way down the stairs. He took one last look at is house; the kitchen that he'd eaten breakfast in so many times, that stupid baby picture of him was still on the wall. He'd made the choice to leave here long ago, even before he'd moved out, and with that choice he'd gotten rid of any feelings he had attached to this house too, but still… A part of him felt something. He didn't want to cry, but he didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay there and look at his house some more. 

Billy sighed and sat his stack of CD’s down. He found a random sheet of paper, and took a permanent marker from the fridge; he began to write:

_Dear mom,_

_I came home today, I just wanted to get the last of my stuff. I'm not sure if you've even been in my room since I've been gone, but if you haven't, and you notice everything is missing, it's because of me. I sold it. I'm not even sure if you care, but I'll be leaving soon, and you are still my mother, so I wanted to give you a proper goodbye. You're keeping the house up, I'm glad. Don't come looking for me at the motel, because as I said before I'll be gone. I've paid the last of my rent and packed all my bags, don't worry about me. I've got someone coming along with me, and my guitar, I'll be okay. Goodbye._

_-Billy_

He folded the paper up, and left it on the kitchen counter. He didn't know when she'd find it, or if she'd find. Maybe she'd throw it away. She hadn't come looking for him at the motel before, and she probably hadn't even been in his room. But she was his mother, and he had to say goodbye. 

And sure, he'd told her that he was going with someone, which was technically a lie, but he would find someone, and as soon as he did he'd be gone.


	2. See Ya, Suckers!

He lay on his bed with his face in the pillow. _Am I trying to suffocate myself?_

He sat up and groaned from the pain, though it was mental, it hurt.

Although he should be happy, because it was Saturday, he wasn't. Rajeev and Shanilla miraculously came up with plans, plans that didn't include him. _So it's starting_.

They'd said they had family stuff, but why couldn't he go to family stuff? They'd known each other for years; family was the next step. He knew why though, they just didn't want to hang out with him.

And to make it worse his parents were gone, along with Jessica. They'd gone to some karate meet up thing, but they hadn't even asked if he wanted to go. 

_Sure I never want to go, but maybe I did today. Maybe I wanted to go to one of these meets and see just what my little sister can do._

He looked around his room; _it's all so boring. I've done literally everything I can do in here._

He wanted a change. Graduation couldn't come sooner. He'd planned on moving out practically the day after. He, Rajeev, and Shanilla would get an apartment somewhere together. 

_“One with 3 bedrooms,” Shanilla had suggested._

_“And 3 bathrooms,” Rajeev added._

_One for each of us. We'd have privacy when we wanted, and company when we wanted. We wouldn't have to worry about any problems because we could talk them out._

_We'd go furniture shopping_.

_“I've always wanted to go furniture shopping,” Spencer said._

_And life would be fine, and livable._

He wanted to cry now, all those plans: flushed down the toilet.

He put on a pair of pants, grabbed his keys and shoes, and left the house.

He was hungry, and lonely. Those were practically all he felt nowadays, besides the obvious sadness. Shanilla and Rajeev were so busy with colleges now, they're parents only wanted the best. They were back and forth on college tours, and here Spencer was; he'd only had one choice. _What am I gonna do for a back up plan? What if I don't get in, huh? What am I gonna do?_

Spencer wanted it all to stop, to just run away from it all. To slow down, he wanted things to be simple again.

“Sir?” a voice called out from in front of him. It belonged to a guy in uniform, and he looked slightly annoyed, but also slightly worried.

Spencer did know which one was caused by him, but he still felt bad. He must've been lost in thought. 

“Oh.. I'm sorry..” he muttered.

“It's fine, what can I get for you?” the man asked quickly.

Spencer gave the man his order: a burger and fries, and stood to the side to wait

Food was always good, it helped Spencer clear his mind. When he ate, his thoughts decided to go to food too. He'd think about how it got here, what people did to make it, and then he'd end up thinking about the history of burgers, or french fries, or smoothies, or cake, and his problems would go away, because food would be the only thing on his mind.

He sat in the grass under a tree, and ate his food. He loved doing that. Maybe if the college thing didn't work out he'd live in a park. He loved all the different things he came across, and he felt that the fresh air made food taste better.

_If only my whole life was like this._

He closed his eyes because of the sun, only to feel it go away. He opened one eye and was met with a face; a familiar face: it was the guy from school.

Spencer had wondered about him. He'd met him a week ago on that day, and he'd never seen him again. He'd shrugged it off at the moment, but the thought was still there.

Brown eyes stared down at him, Sepencers cheeks were probably red from the uncomfortableness of the situation. He averted his eyes elsewhere, though, due to the guys position he didn't have much choice between crotch and his black pants, _why was he standing so close anyway?_ So Spencer looked at his own lap instead.

“You, uh, need anything?” he asked, glancing back and forth between his lap and the guys face. He had on a green hoodies, and had a guitar strapped around his shoulder.

“Were you sleeping?” the boy asked curiously.

“No….”

He heard an “oh,” from the boy, and then the sun was back in his eyes, before he knew it the boy appeared in front of his face. Spencer could feel his eyes on him, but he kept his own focused on something else.

“What's your name?” 

“Spencer.”

**....**

“Spencer.” Billy repeated to himself.

“I'm Billy.”

Spencer gave an awkward smile. Billy studied his face. He looked so dorky; the glasses, the freckles. But his eyes, Billy thought they were beautiful. They were olive green, or maybe light, off-brown, either way it goes, he'd never seen eyes like Spencer's, and he'd paid a lot of attention to other people's eyes.

Spencer. His name seemed to match his eyes, it was strange. You know how you sometimes match certain words with certain colours? Like how math could be green, and history was yellow; Spencer was this colour. Billy had to find a name for it.

Naturally, for a songwriter like Billy, you had to know a lot of words. You needed things to compare stuff to, and you couldn't do that unless you knew what to compare it to.

He then noticed the boy's face was red, he let a laugh slip out and tilted his head to the side. _Was he embarrassed?_

“What's wrong?” Billy asked.

Spencer shook his head quickly, “nothing.”

Billy smiled, but then remembered what he was here for: he needed Spencer's help.

Yes, he was, in his words, “The Cobra”, and yes, also in his words, “ The Cobra” would always work alone, but this was essential. This was the last of his work; the final project, he was leaving. And he needed some help.

“Are you doing anything important right now?” he asked, moving his eyes around Spencer's face.

“Uh, no..” Spencer answered quietly, presumably trying to avoid having to look at Billy.

“So, you remember how I saved your ass last week with Ponzi?” 

Spencer nodded cautiously.

“And now you kinda owe me?” He’d meant for it to be a statement, but instead it came out as a question. 

“O….K…”

“Can you drive?” Billy then asked.

He nodded again. Yes, Spencer could drive, but he didn’t have a car to drive in.

“Great, look I need your help with something, it's something totally important, and only you can help me with it,” Billy started. Maybe he was exaggerating a little with the whole ‘you're the only one that can do it’ part, but Spencer was the only one he knew of that wouldn't talk.

“What do you need me to do?”

"I need you to drive me somewhere," Billy answered, looking Spencer in the eyes. He was still trying to think of a way to describe the boy's eyes, it would eat at him until he did.

You know that feeling you get when you're looking for a word, but you don't know how to explain it, so you sit at Google trying to dissect your thoughts, but you can't because Google is not your memory? It was like that.

"Uh, okay. But I don't have a car," Spencer admitted.

"Good." Billy then stood, and walked away.

Assuming he wanted to be followed, Spencer got up and followed after him.

They stopped at a truck.

"This baby right here is Viper," Billy announced, patting the hood of the truck.

Spencer stared, in all honesty he didn't know what to say.

"Why have you got a car if you can't drive?" he wanted to ask, but ultimately went against it.

He watched as Billy opened the left side door and gestured for him to get in.

"Doors kinda hard to shut," he explained as he got in the passenger seat, placing his guitar in the back seat like it was some sort of child.

Spencer gave a nervous laugh . "Ehm, so, ah, where to?"

"Your house."

The look on Spencer's face was something between horrified and confusion. This guy just kept getting stranger.

"We'll stop there first, I uh, need to pee," Billy lied.

Spencer hesitated, but started the car.

_Why did he need me to do this?_

_Why did he need me to drive?_

_Could he not drive?_

This guy was weird.

The car ride was mostly silent. Billy'd put in one of his CD's and they listened to that the way there, though Spencer wouldn't have minded if it was silent. Billy had a good taste in music, Spencer actually liked it a lot.

Billy had also attempted to make conversation with him, but because he's Spencer, it didn't go too well.

Spencer hadn't realised just how far the park was from his house. On bus rides he usually sat back and enjoyed the ride. He never paid attention to his phone, or anything, he just took in the scenery and waited.

But with driving, you had to be aware of so many more things. You have to keep the wheels in place, stay in the right lane, make sure you're not moving too fast or too slow, and then when you're driving with someone else in the car you've got that constant nagging in the back of your mind that the other person is mentally judging you so hard; it was so stressful. Spencer definitely preferred to be the passenger.

"We're here," Spencer announced as he stopped the car.

"No one home?" Billy asked, curiously.

Spencer shook his head.

"Good." He'd heard Billy mumble as he got out of the car.

Spencer watched as the boy strolled up his porch and stop. Billy stood staring at Spencer through the window, until it dawned on him that he had the key. He mentally face palmed himself, and quickly got out of the truck.

"You want me to break in just to take a piss?" Billy joked as Spencer walked up the stairs.

Spencer gave a nervous laugh and fumbled with his keys in the door. It took about a minute for him to finally get the thing open.

Billy found it amusing. He was in no rush, maybe he wouldn't have minded if it had lasted longer.

The inside of Spencer's house was nice. The front door lead to what Billy assumed to be the living room; the walls were green, there was a brown couch, a coffee table and a tv. There were also other things, one of those cases he'd never learned the name of that held glass, a rug, and a few pictures of a girl with purple hair.

"Who's this?" Billy asked, pointing to one of those pictures.

"My sister, Jessica," Spencer responded with a sigh.

He lead Billy up stairs to where the bathroom was, and then took a seat on his bed, where he waited. He frowned, _I need a new mattress_. His was old, his parents thought that as long as it didn't smell bad, and was in one piece he could deal. And besides, he'd be leaving soon anyway.

He groaned thinking about it.

"Whoa, your room is.." Billy marveled.

"Yea…" Spencer responded in embarrassment. His cheeks turned red, and he avoided looking at Billy.

 _Why is he like this,_ Billy wondered. He didn't understand why Spencer was so nervous and jumpy, but then again, he didn't know anything about the boy.

"Its cool," Billy clarified. So many posters, so many movies. What was this guy interested in, anyway?

"Not everyone thinks so," Spencer mumbled.

Billy's eyes rested on Spencer. This guy was just one of those stereotypical dorks. The ones that got teased and told they'd be lonely forever. The ones that in 10 years would either be living in their parents basement, or be super hot and successful to the point where everyone was sorry for everything they'd ever said to him- but Billy couldn't see Spencer ending up in any of those situations.

 _Where do I see this guy in 10 years?_ Billy asked himself, he didnt know now, but maybe later?

"So, uh.. is that all you needed?" Spencer asked glancing up at Billy.

Billy was quiet for a second, then spoke quietly.

"Can you keep a secret?" he asked sitting down next to Spencer, a bit too close.

"No one's here, you know?" Spencer pointed out.

"You don't have to…" he started, but the look Billy gave him said shut up, so he stopped.

"Answer the question," Billy pushed, he already knew he could trust the boy, but still wanted to ask; to make things more pitiful.

"Uh, yea. I think so.? Why?" Spencer responded, hesitating.

"I'm planning on running away, all I need is a driver," Billy explained slowly.

Spencer leaned away from him. He'd never done anything like this before, no one's ever needed his help with anything. And yea, this was a small thing, but still: this guy's life kinda depended on Spencer, in a way.

"Uh, where do y-you need to go?" he stuttered out.

Billy was silent. Okay, so he _didn't_ know where he needed to go. But he figured he'd figure that out on the way.

"Far," he decided to say. "How long are your parents gone for?" he then added.

Spencer thought. Jessica's karate meet was in Colorado, they'd left last night to get on the plane, it took about 2 hours to get there from here in California, and they were staying for 3 days, so

"A few days," he said.

"Perfect," Billy muttered. He then got up and started going through Spencer's dresser

"Hey, what are you-"

"You'll need a change of clothes…. _you_ might be gone for a few days too."

"A few days?" Spencer questioned.

"Uh, yea. I wanna get pretty far away and we could make it in a day, but then we wouldn't have time to take in all the scenery y'know?" Billy explained, throwing a pair of boxers in the other boys direction.

Spencer caught them, and sighed. His face was probably going red again.

A part of him felt aroused, he was actually excited for this. A road trip! Sure he'd imagined going on it with Rajeev and Shanilla, and not some total stranger, but how often do you get the chance to do something like this? How often in your life will some guy come up to you and ask you to help him run away? Close to fucking never. Something told him to do this, he'd most certainly regret it if he didn't.

But then there was another part telling him no. This wasn't right, he couldn't just skip school, and stuff like that. Sure he hated it, and it made him want to die, but it was something he had to do, besides maybe in a few months after he graduated he'd have a chance to take a road trip of his own.

But that would require a car, and money, two things he didn't have and will probably never have. Besides he did even want a car, #Publictransportation4life was his motto.

He was totally gonna do this, besides, it was just a few days right? This could be totally rad.

"So, should I pack a lot?" he asked, which surprised Billy. He didn't think it'd be that easy to convince him to come. From the looks of it Spencer was pretty uptight, and if not uptight he had some sort of stress problem.

"Just pack the essentials, meaning, if your home caught on fire, pack the things you would mind losing," he answered. Who knows, maybe his house would catch on fire while he was gone, Billy didn't want Spencer to lose everything because of him.

Spencer shoved some things into a bag; a camera, his laptop, his laptop charger, some USB drives, a book, a few movies, and some clothes.

"Okay," he said, glancing around his room, " ready."

He stood there in his beat up sneakers, baggy jeans and grey hoodie, and waited. Billy smiled. _He's really gonna do this._

Before they walked out the door Spencer disappeared and returned with his toothbrush.

"I, uh…" he trailed off, waving the brush in the air. Billy then noticed Spencer's hair, and thought about a hair brush; he didn't look like he'd owned one. It wasn't bad though, if anything it could be quite attractive. It looked like someone had ran their hands through it a bunch of times during a makeout session. Of course though that was only Billy's take on it, it was the only way he knew how to describe it, though in time he'd have to find a proper, more appropriate way to explain it.

He was a bit disappointed he didn't get to see the rest of Spencer's house before they left though, he wanted to know what Spencer saw every day, maybe he'd ask him about it later.

The two of them sat in the front of Billy's truck.

"So, it takes about 10 hours driving non stop to get to Oregon, so it should take us 2 days to get there, that is if we only do 5 hours of driving. We could do more, or less depending on things, but 2 days and we should hit Oregon," Billy explained.

"And that's where you need to go?" Spencer asked.

"Right," Billy said trying to sound sure of himself. He didn't know _where_ he wanted to go, but hey, maybe Oregon _will_ be where he decides to stay.

Spencer started the car, and they began their journey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, if you read this far thank you very much. Let me know if there's anything I need to work on. Maybe my story is moving to fast, maybe it's moving too slow? Maybe you see me missing some punctuation, or I have some punctuation where it shouldn't be. Maybe somethung isnt clear, or you have a better way of me showing it. Just let me know.


	3. A Night in Viper

Billy sang along to the song playing in his car.

\- 

_"I wanna start from the top, maybe like a do-over,  
replace the voices in my head with blind innocence_

_I want a complete re-do, maybe change my name_

_Report the loses, grab the claim, it’s a shame it's such a shame_

_We’re pissing away our time cause we’re pissing away these beers_

_No monumental moment ever came from saying 'Come on dude, just take one more shot'"_

\- 

“What's this song called?” Spencer asked curiously.

“Re-do, by Modern Baseball. I kiiinda live by it,” Billy replied nonchalantly.

Spencer nodded slowly, and focused as much of his attention as he could on the song.

_"Maybe I could just move away or go extinct like triceratops_

\- 

_But I love loving: watching movies, sitting back and also breathing_

_My family and friends would be crushed, but is it enough, no, it's not enough_

_Oh the future freaks me out but I guess I could just curl up in a ball and think....."_

\- 

Spencer could relate.

Billy ended up playing the album several times during the ride, until after what felt like hours and

“Stop!” Billy screamed. 

Spencer slammed on the breaks, and they came to a halt; they were literally in the middle of nowhere.

Spencer's heart was beating fast: _did I almost hit something? Did he forget something? What's wrong_.

“Look,” Billy said a little above a whisper.

Spencer followed the boy's finger to outside the window. He was pointing to… 

“An empty field?" Spencer asked.

Billy shook his head silently, leaving his finger in the air.

“I don't see anything,” Spencer stated, confused. He saw a bird, but there wasn't anything special about it. There was some trash on the ground, a few weeds in the grass, and then he noticed; it was the sunset.

Spencer gave a sigh of relief, and smiled, the sky was beautiful, if only- 

“Where’re you going?” Spencer asked as Billy got out of the car. The boy didn't answer and continued to walk through the empty field, until he found a spot and fell backwards.

_Wha?_

Spencer quickly got out of the car and walked over to where Billy laid in the grass, and sat down a few feet away from him.

The sunset was wonderful, you could see so much more than you could in the city. You could see the horizon and all the colours. The sky looked like a rainbow; at the top it was a bit red, then it drained to orange, and a little bit of green, only to end in shades of blue and purple.

“Hey, Spencer?” Billy called out.

“You know, I've been thinking, you've got that camera right?” he continued without waiting for a response.

“I was thinking maybe we should start recording our journey, or something, you know? So we can remember it.”

Spencer turned his attention to the boy in the grass.

“Its just, you don't really get to do this type of thing everyday, so it'd be nice to have memories that aren't in your head,” he finished, turning to Spencer.

Their eyes met, Billy thought the sunset made Spencer's eyes looking exceptionally wonderful. Just him with the sky in the background.

He took out his phone and snapped a picture.

Spencer's face turned red. “W-What are you doing?” he stuttered nervously.

“Keeping memories.” 

**.....**

Soon after the beautiful sunset the sky became dark, and Billy and Spencer had to find a place to stay for the night. They were left with one of two choices; they either sleep in Billy's truck, Viper, or they could find a hotel or something and get the least expensive room possible. Of course Billy didn't mind the former, but would Spencer mind? What if he didn't want to sleep in the front of a stupid van? What if he'd decide to just go back home? Then what would Billy do? He needed Spencer's help, he needed Spencer to stay until he found a place to stay.

Spencer yawned. “Don't you think it's getting a bit late?” he pointed out softly. Though it sounded more like a suggestion.

Billy took a look at the clock and it read 8:25, then he took a look at the road in front of him: it was dark. There was only darkness for miles; darkness and trees, and probably creepy red eyes, and monsters. Billy had forgotten how afraid of the dark he was until now- there was no way he was going to sleep in this truck, out here in this darkness, there was literally no way he'd be able to sleep.

“I think we're lost,” Spencer then added. They were infact probably lost, and their best bet was to stay where they were and wait til morning, Spencer knew that, but did Billy? What if Billy blamed this on Spencer? Was it his fault?

They had no gps, and no phone signal, and even if they did, they still had no destination in mind, so what good would that do?

Spencer stopped the car, and Billy gave him a look.

“We're almost out of gas, if we keep going now we could get even more lost and run out of gas, if we stop here, then maybe the morning will be better,” Spencer explained, later adding an “I think,” so he wouldn’t sound too demanding.

Billy hesitated, he looked like he wanted to say something, but he instead stayed quiet.

Spencer gave him a worried look, but turned the car off and they sat together in silence.

“You dont have to sleep up here if you don't want to, there’s room in the back, or you can use the backseat,” Billy announced after a few minutes.

“Oh, what about you?” Spencer asked.

“Me? Pfft, The Cobra is fine,” Billy answered, trying to sound sure of himself, but failing miserably, he then grabbed his guitar from the backseat, let his own seat back, and closed his eyes, playing something Spencer couldn’t recognise.

Spencer sighed. He unlocked the door and hopped in the back. He found his bag of things, and pulled out a blanket. Even though they were in California and it was warm in the car, he still wanted to have it, he could _totally_ sleep without it. Spencer, then took his camera from his pocket, and looked through all the many pictures Billy had taken today. _So many pictures in so little time._

There were pictures of trees, and the sky, you could see the stars, and Billy had taken pictures of other drivers, and some of himself, and some of Spencer too. He quietly laughed, the pictures Billy had taken of him were so bad, but he decided to leave them, because Billy obviously took them for a reason, right? And whatever that reason was, Spencer wanted to respect it.

He then thought about why Billy had asked him to do this, he’d said that he needed Spencer. Was that really true? Couldn’t he have just asked any of his other friends? Spencer wanted to ask, but-

“Billy,” he called out. He heard a “hmm,” and then he slapped his hand over his mouth, _what was he doing?_

_Maybe if I just stay quiet he’ll forget about it._

“You call me, Spencer?” Billy asked, popping his head over the seat, pressing the light on.

“Oh,” Spencer mumbled, looking down, his face was probably red again.

“Can’t sleep?” Billy asked.

“Oh, no. I was just gonna ask you a question, but it’s alright,” Spencer explained.

“Oh.”

Billy settled his head against the window, and began playing his guitar again, this time he was singing quietly too.

\- 

_The diamonds in your eyes, they keep my sunglasses on._

_We take the love we feel we earn, and leave the rest to burn._

_You don’t need me, but we’ll make believe like you do. Well you don’t._

_I’ll be sour, you’ll be sweet; it’s nothing new_. 

_What are you still doing here?_

_I know the space is hard enough,_

without me making more. 

_You don’t need me, but we’ll make believe like you do. Well you don’t._

_I’ll be sour, you be sweet; it’s nothing new. What are you still doing here?_

\- 

He then stopped singing and started playing what Spencer thought was the most beautiful guitar solo he’d ever heard; albeit he hadn’t heard many, but this was his favourite.

“The song was nice,” Spencer blurted, facepalming himself, this time literally. He didn't know what to say. Any of his words would have sounded like useless chatter compared to Billy’s singing. 

“I always like to play my guitar when I can't sleep,” Billy admitted.

“You can't sleep?” Spencer asked, sitting up from his spot.

“What!” Billy questioned loudly. As he sat up he bumped his head on the roof, disrupting the silence. 

“I'm fine,” he started, rubbing his head. “I could sleep like a baby right now. I just thought you couldn't sleep, so I played you something.”

Spencer raised an eyebrow at the boy above him.

“I'm not afraid of the dark,” Billy huffed, disappearing behind the seat.

Spencer smirked, and pressed the light off. The car became completely dark, and Billy screamed. 

Spencer heard a thud; Billy had hit his head again. He quickly pressed the light on, and asked if the boy way okay, and then they sat in silence 

“Billy?” Spencer called out again, this time a bit more confident.

“Yea?”

“Why’d you ask me to come with you?” Spencer asked hesitantly.

Billy didn't answer. He didn't know why he wanted Spencer to come with him. They'd only met once, and for all he knew, this guy could be a crazed lunatic just waiting for him to fall asleep to make his move, but he'd still asked Spencer to do it. Maybe it was because he had no one else to ask. Or maybe it was so he wouldn’t be in the dark alone when he got into situations like this one they were in now. In retrospect Spencer's question was pretty stupid. Why would anyone go on a trip to unknown places alone? It's the fear of the unknown, and being with other people always made fear a little less tragic. And Spencer seemed like one of those people that would make it a lot less tragic.

“Why’d you decide to come with me?” Billy decided ask in response.

The brunette thought a moment. At the time, earlier this morning, he hadn't been thinking straight, he'd just said yes, but there were so many other things to think about. Where would they stay? What would they do about money? Why did this guy want him? He could've been a rapist, or murder. Maybe he'd murdered someone and was on the run. Spencer looked up at the boy, and let out a laugh. 

_There's no way this guy's a murder._

“What?” Billy pouted.

Spencer shook his head, and sighed. “How often in your life does a guy come up to you and ask you to help him run away?” he started.

“How often in your life are you given the chance to do something you've always wanted to do without having to think of any consequences?”

“It's just, I've always wanted to go on an adventure, to do something out of the ordinary. Do something that only happens in books. I wanted to live in fiction, and you don't chances in life to do that. So when the opportunity presented itself, of course I had to take it. Or I would've regretted it for the rest of my life,” Spencer explained.

“And what if I was planning on killing you?” Billy asked, clumsily climbing over the seat to the back where Spencer was. He looked like a giant little kid, and Spencer laughed. 

“Then, at least I'd be able to say I did this. That I didn't spend my last few hours doing something I hated.”

Billy sighed, spending your last minutes doing something you hated sounded terrible. But most people's lives were terrible, especially young people. All they could do was go to school, they couldn't live. And then some people die so young, before they even get the chance to realise that they can do something greater. Spencer was right, Billy would rather die here in the back of his truck right now, than go back to that motel room. He'd rather die doing something he'd always dreamed of doing, than die doing something he loathed.

Yes, Billy would be graduating in a few months, but then what? He'd be forced to get some stupid job, or go to college if his mom even cared enough for that, when all he really wanted to do was live. It'd be him, his guitar, and Viper travelling the world together - or as much of it as he could- and now he was one step closer to that dream.

Spencer yawned again, and Billy sighed. It was almost 9:00, pretty early for bed, but when you've been driving for hours like Spencer has, it must get pretty exhausting. But Billy wanted Spencer to stay up with him, there'd be no way he would get any sleep if he had to do it alone. He knew they couldn't keep the light on all night, and a phone would surely die if you kept the flashlight on for hours. He needed Spencer to distract him until he felt sleepy enough to do it alone.

But what would they talk about? Spencer was this nervous kid, he definitely wouldn't be in the mood to share his life story with some random guy, who may or may not be out to kill him. So it was settled: Spencer would go to sleep and leave Billy alone to fend for himself in the night. Except Spencer never laid down either. It seemed as if he was afraid too, but neither boy wanted to admit it, so then what?

They sat in awkward silence with their backs against the back of the seats, waited.

What felt like hours passed before either of them finally spoke.

“C- can you play another song?” Spencer asked, uneasily.

Billy whispered “Okay,” pressed the light off, and quietly began to strum on his guitar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone was wondering, the song Billy supposedly sings is Love to Burn, by Seahaven. Thanks for reading, x.


	4. Simultaneously Poor

Billy awoke to something heavy on his lap; he figured it was his guitar. He rubbed his eyes, and ran his hand over his face several times, and then grabbed at the guitar, but what he'd touched wasn’t his guitar, it was in fact a human, Spencer to be more precise; he was curled up, resting his head on Billy’s thigh.

His first thought was to panic, but then he smiled, there was always something soothing about seeing someone else sleeping. Everyone looked so peaceful in their sleep, they looked as if everything in the world was fine; he wondered if he looked like that when he slept. _Of course, The Cobra always looks good,_ he thought, laughing to himself. 

He then felt something move, and remembered that he still had his hand resting on Spencer's shoulder. He glanced down to see if the boy had awoken and quickly pulled his hand away, and averted his eyes to the window.

Billy thought things looked so much more simple in the daylight. And they did. The dark had a habit of bringing out everything wrong in the world, so a fear of it was very rational. 

The car was surrounded mostly by trees and open fields. In the distance Billy was able to see a WiFri sign, _it's light must've been burned out last night,_ which was great because as if on cue his stomach made one of those terrible hungry sounds.

“Oh!” a voice said. “I'm, uh, really sorry.”

Spencer was finally up, and his face was red.

Billy wanted to laugh, how terrible is it to be embarrassed the moment you get up; that peaceful face gone just like that.

“Its really alright,” Billy assured, softly patting Spencer's shoulder, which made the boy's face turn redder. _There's really no way to talk to this guy is there?_ Every little thing Billy did made the kid blush. 

He sighed and clumsily climbed back over the back seat; he had to take a wizz.

Spencer yawned, and rubbed his eyes. His cheek had the imprint of Billy's pants on it, and his mouth hurt, presumably from the way he was lying. You know how when you lay your mouth against your arm or something too long and then there's pain?

He ran his hand through his hair; it was always tangled a bit whenever he woke up, and he'd use his fingers to get them all out. Combs always left his hair to “tidy” for his liking, so he'd opt for his hands.

It was now Sunday, he'd wondered if his parents had called him. Probably not, they rarely called when they were away, once when they reached the destination, and once when they were leaving, but still.

He stared at his phone, though it had no signal he still wished a message would appear. He could've been murdered in the amount of time they were gone, and they wouldn't know until days later.

The thought gave him chills, he shoved his phone in his pocket and reached for his bag. He grabbed his toothbrush, and a bottle of water; he'd forgotten toothpaste, but this was better than nothing. 

**....**

“Rajeev, do you think we were a little hard on Spencer? I mean I know we're always late because of him, but he is still our friend,” Shanilla asked, taking a sip of her drink, sitting at a booth with Rajeev.

They’d been kind of avoiding Spencer for the past few days, he didn't know it, but they'd gotten detention that day he made them late, and the week after that he did the same thing; they were getting tired of picking him up: they were being distant.

Rajeev took a bite out of his sandwich and spoke a few incoherent words. Maybe she was right, Spencer was actually their only friend, other than that they only had each other, and as loving as that sounds being best friends with your sibling is kind of embarrassing. But that still didn't make it okay for Spencer to make them late everyday.

“I guess,” he finally said, swallowing the food in his mouth. Rajeev didn't like to admit that he was wrong, so instead he'd always use ‘maybe’. It was a trait that one had to learn to love.

“So why don't we go see him, and apologise then?” his sister suggested. She had that look in her eyes, the one that only appeared when she was talking about Spencer. 

She liked him, so she'd easily forgive him, but Rajeev ? Even if he knew he was wrong he'd be too stubborn to just accept and forgive, he'd at least need an apology on Spencer's part before he did any apologising himself because he had the right to be angry, but in the same sense, so did Spencer.

So Shanilla ordered an extra burger, and they began their journey to Spencer's house.

Spencer's home always made the two feel welcome, whether it was just that type of home, or the fact that they'd been visiting there for years, they didn't know, but it just felt homey.

Shanilla knocked hard on the door with an annoyed Rajeev standing beside her.

“Guess he's not home,” Rajeev noted, after standing outside for a few seconds.

“Spencer!” Shanilla yelled, “It's us, open up.”

But there was still no answer, with the combination of their loud knocks and yells, the house still stayed silent.

“Where would he be at this time of day?” Shanilla wondered, pulling out her phone. Spencer rarely left the house on his off days, only in the mornings for breakfast and maybe around 12 for lunch, but it was only 10: he should be home.

The phone went to voicemail, she tried again and again, but nothing.

She searched through the plant beside the front door, and found the spare key, but when they got into his house the boy was nowhere to be seen.

**....**

Though it was minimally loud, Billy could still hear the grumble of Spencer's stomach.

“Why didn't you order more to eat? I mean I know you're pretty thin, but one sandwich isn't gonna hold you, ‘specially if its from the WiFri,” Billy questioned. There was also the fact that Billy always ate way too much, so pretty much anyone didn't eat enough by to his standards.

“No, I'm fine,” Spencer answered, even though he wasn't. Truth be told, he didn't like spending other people's money, it always made him feel selfish, so he always ordered just enough to get something there. And if that didn't satisfy him, then oh well.

“Really,” he assured after seeing the look Billy gave him.

Billy frowned and slid the rest of his fries and half his burger across to Spencer.

The two boys shared a series of looks ultimately resulting in Spence accepting the food.

“So,” Billy started, shoving a piece of a cookie in his mouth, “ What kinda stuff are you into?”

“U-uh, well…. what do you mean?” Spencer asked cautiously. 

“Like, y’know stuff you like to do, music you like, stuff like that.” 

“Oh,” Spencer responded, laughing nervously, “ all I really do is make films, and do special effects.”

“That's really neat, broski,” Billy said in awe,” that's why you brought that camera along?”

“Yea, I had, uh, planned on, maybe recording some stuff. But I wasn't sure if you'd think it was dumb or not, so..” Spencer trailed off nervously.

“No way dude, I obviously think it's totally cool,” Billy clarified.

“Yea, I kinda get that now,”

The two were silent for a moment.

“So can I see one?” Billy then asked, “ like one of your movies?”

“Ahh, well, I don't really have any with me, they're all at home,” Spencer responded.

“But, I, uh, I do have a few short films on my MeTube I can show you later,” he added, seeing the look on Billy's face fall.

“Sounds like a plan,” Billy concluded, closing his eyes and resting his head against the back of the booth they were currently sitting at.

**....**

“So I was thinking, since Nevada is a few hours away from where we are now, we should cut through there later, just to, y’know, see more stuff,” Billy suggested, looking at a map he'd bought.

“Won't that put us way off track though?” Spencer asked. He didn't know much about geography, or maps, but he knew that going to Nevada then to Oregon would take quite a bit more time.

“Well yea, but it's just _one_ more day y’know?” Billy pointed out.

“A school day,” Spencer mumbled, staring straight ahead at the road ahead of them. He had no idea where they were heading, he'd just drive until Billy told him to stop.

“Pffft, what's _one_ school day to _this_? Like you said, how often do you get to do something like this? For free nonetheless.” 

“I guess you're right,” Spencer mumbled to himself.

“Of course I am, The Cobras always right, how do you think I got this far?” he joked.

“Anywho, since we're in the wonderful city of Sacramento, I figured we could do some pretty cool stuff. They have lots of parks we could check out; you like parks right?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Spencer responded, caught off guard. _How'd he-_

“Yesterday morning you were, like, napping under that tree, so I just figured that only someone who enjoyed being outside would do something like that,” Billy explained. 

“That, or you were homeless, but I doubted that. You-”

“We need gas though,” Spencer interrupted. Hearing what other people thought of him made him anxious, _and_ scared, _and_ nervous; he just didn't like it.

“Oh yea, I _totes_ forgot about that,” Billy laughed to himself.

He pressed on the radio which was playing some song Spencer had never heard before, and before they knew it they were at a gas station.

In that moment it was brought to Spencer's attention that the two of them had been wearing the same clothes from yesterday. Of course Spencer was the king of wearing clothes several times before he washed them, but they'd been outside in the grass in those clothes. _That can't be healthy right?_

He suddenly felt dirty. Spencer was used to showing every morning; feeling the warmth of the water on his skin. It always made him feel refreshed getting out. He felt insanely dirty. 

He hadn't been able to do is morning brooding either; he'd spend so much time in the bathroom thinking about his life problems. It gave him time to think and try to sort things out. Unfortunately that hadn't really gotten him anywhere because he'd do the same thing every morning: contemplate the same things, and even create more problems from the small variety he had.

Once his thinking process was over he was left more miserable than before, he'd then have to deal with Jessica, and being late for school, and things would continue to spiral downward until he was able to forget it.

Eating in the park always helped him forget. It felt nice to turn all your problems into hunger. That hungry feeling and the sadness would become one, and once one was gone, so was the other.

“So where’re we headed first?” Billy asked, hopping back into the car.

Once again Spencer thoughts had been interrupted, but this time, maybe it was for the best.

“This is your journey, I'm just the driver,” the brunette said with a sad smile.

“Right, right, right,” Billy muttered, shaking his head amusingly to himself.

So the two boys spent a what felt like forever visiting different parks throughout the city; that's all they really did to be honest. Billy even played a few songs on his guitar.

Spencer thought the boy was a great guitarist, and an even greater singer. He'd never really cared for up and coming musicians, but if they were all this great, then he was seriously missing out.

He had secretly recorded Billy's little performances, and though he doubted the boy would even care, he kind of wanted it to stay a secret; a secret between himself and his camera.

Spencer would never have thought that Billy was that type of person. Of course he knew that you should never judge someone based on what they looked like, but Billy seemed like one of those people that were super popular and had tons of friends; those people that always went out to parties, and had their heads so far up their asses that you literally had to question humanity as to why anyone liked them.

But Billy wasn't like that at all, not that what Spencer had assumed he'd be like was necessarily bad, it just eased the his mind; knowing that he and Billy had something in common made it somehow easier to talk to him. Maybe they weren't _that_ different.

After stopping at a WiFri for dinner, the two boys later found themselves in a cheap motel room on the outskirts of Reno, Nevada.

“Sorry, this was all I could afford,” Billy explained coyly.

“Its fine,” Spencer mumbled because it was. Part of him hated this, part of him wished he was back at home in his bed, but that same part of him was the part that had never wanted to do this in the first place; that was a small part of him. 

The other part of him wanted this. He was excited for this. Sure having to stay in some cheap motel room for the night was probably going to be uncomfortable, but all great things were, right? You _had_ to be okay with being homeless and uncomfortable if you planned on traveling, _and_ were simultaneously poor.

The room had one bed, a couch, and a tv along with a bathroom and a kitchen area; more than they actually needed for just one night.

“I'll take the couch,” Billy announced, throwing his bag on the wooden floor next to the beige couch.

“Its not a pull out,” Spencer pointed out.

“I know, silly,” the taller boy teased, “don't worry about it, keep the bed.” 

Spencer frowned as he plopped down onto the bed. This wasn’t right, Billy was the one who'd paid for the room, he should be the one sleeping here, while Spencer took the stupid couch. He didn't feel right about this, and even though Billy had said not to worry about it, Spencer still found himself feeling guilty and selfish.

“You can go shower first, if you want,” Billy conveyed, kicking off his shoes. He'd practically dumped his bag on the floor, looking for something unknown to Spencer.

Seeing as the boy seemed busy, Spencer accepted without any complaints.

Spencer’d always hated using foreign showers, they were always hard to figure out, and just really strange, but right now he didn't really seem to mind it. Yes, trying to get the thing on was pretty hard, but today it didn't seem so bad. Maybe it was the fact that he'd been waiting for this all day, or maybe it was because he'd gotten himself into this, so he really didn't have anyone to blame other than himself, but either way: Spencer was okay.

One thing he _did_ like though about these bathrooms were the fact that they never had those long mirrors, so once he got out of the shower he only had to pay attention to the top part of his unsatisfying body.

He dried his hair off and brushed his teeth, then put on his pyjamas: a white t shirt with black jogging pants- which he'd later take off due to the uncomfortableness of sleeping in pants- and was done for the night.

He opened the door to Billy's guitar playing. He was - again - playing something Spencer couldn’t recognise. He also noticed that Billy hadn't tidied up at all since he'd been in the shower, and for some reason that made him smile.

“Oh, you done?” a voice asked, signaling the end of the music.

Spencer nodded.

“Oh, I'd been looking for this music sheet,” Billy explained, holding up a sheet of music as he noticed Spencer eyeing the mess on the floor.

“I liked it,” the brunette admitted,staring at the ground.

“Thanks, I still need to finish though, I thought this trip would help get my mind juices flowing, but I guess not.”

Billy sat down his guitar, grabbed some clothes off the floor, and proceeded into the bathroom. 

Spencer then got an idea. He began to grab armfuls of Billy's things and piling them up on the bed, _that way he'd have to sleep there._

He then picked up the boy's guitar and lay it down across the bed.

He wasn't sure how Billy had fit all that stuff in his bag, so he instead decided to put some order to it. He'd folded the boy's clothes, stacked all his papers and shoved them inside a notebook, and gathered all his pens and pencils. He searched through his bag for a rubber band- he'd always had one for some reason- and tied the utensils together.

Billy'd also had multiple little trinkets: an eraser, a guitar pick, and various other things that Spencer had no clue what to do with, so he sat them on top of the small stacks of clothes.

Spencer went through his own bag to fetch his blanket, took a seat on the couch, and waited; he wasn't sure if Billy'd be mad or not, but however the boy felt, Spencer’d feel bad if he didn’t experience it since he'd be the cause of it.

A few minutes later Billy came out of the bathroom with a confused look on his face. His head was even cocked to the side like a puppy or something. 

His eyes glanced curiously between the bed, and where Spencer sat on the couch.

Spencer's face turned red as he tried to explain. “You paid that stupid money for this room, I did nothing, so you keep the bed… I'm fine on the couch, really.” And, unlike with the food incident this morning, Spencer really was fine. 

“I wasn't sure how you fit all your stuff in your bag, so I just sorted everything out, sorry.”

Then it was Billy’s turn to blush, even though it was a very small gesture, he'd still appreciated it, he hadn't seen folded clothes in, like, months. Billy never felt the need to fold his clothes, he'd just ruin the structure later, and he also didn’t have the time.

He smiled to himself, “thanks,” he then said to Spencer.

These sort of things always made Spencer feel awkward, but this time it was a good sort of awkward.

From his spot on the couch he watched Billy pack all of his things back into his bag. Something about him seemed different, but Spencer couldn't quite put his finger on it.

“Night, Spencer,” Billy called. He waited for Spencer to say it back, then flicked the light off.

It was around 11:00, but their minds kept them from sleeping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a bit longer than usual, I'll try to make them shorter, unless you don't mind longer chapters(?) Sorry.


	5. Surprise?

Spencer awoke to smell of something burning. His eyes flew open- but he saw nothing. There was no smoke, he could breathe fine, everything looked the same as it did the night before.

_Wait, where's Billy?_

Spencer eyed the room and stopped once he'd gotten to the bathroom, there was a vague light coming from the room.

_Bingo_

He slowly got up and walked over to the door, peeking his head in.

“Mornin’,” Billy greeted once he noticed the boy in the mirror.

“My hair got kinda wet, last night,” he explained, seeing Spencer eye the flat iron in his hand.

Spencer sighed; Billy was only straightening his hair.

 _So that's what it was,_ Spencer thought thinking back to last night; something about Billy had seemed different, he just couldn't put his finger on it, but now it was all so clear: his hair was curly.

Spencer had figured that Billy's hair was just naturally straight, like his own, but obviously that wasn't the case.

“Do you ever wear it curly?” Spencer asked, unintentionally.

“Sorry, you _don't_ have to answer that,” he quickly added. He hadn't meant to ask that, sure he was thinking it, but-

“Nah, it's fine,” Billy assured, setting the iron down. “I used to wear it curly, back in grade school, but once I got to high school I stopped.”

“How come?”

“I've kinda always hated my hair,” he responded, laughing to himself.

“Yea, and mom would never let me straighten it, and she wouldn't straighten it, so once I got to high school I kinda just started doing my own thing, and the hair was part of that.”

Billy's explanation only gave Spencer more questions, or rather evoked old questions he'd had pertaining to the boy. 

But would he answer them? I'll ask him at a later date, Spencer decided. He'd learned enough about the boy's history for now.

“That's understandable,” he mumbled.

Billy shrugged his shoulders and went back to working on his hair.

“After I'm done we can go get some breakfast,” he suggested, “unless you wanted to go on down now, then you can.”

Spencer shook his head and made his way back to the couch, then waited.

He pulled out his phone and sighed.

It was now Monday and still no one had called him. Though it was only 6:30, and no one usually called this early, still, when you know you're doing something out of the ordinary you kind of expect the people close to you to notice too. Like you send out some sort of ‘hey, I might be in danger’ signal, but apparently that's not how reality worked.

He decided to focus his mind on Billy. He wondered why he hated his hair so much. Spencer found nothing wrong with curly hair, infact he sometimes wished his hair had curl to it.

There was also the fact that he found everything about himself boring; except for his eyes. Those were totally not boring, maybe that's why he hated them so much. They shouldn't belong to a boring guy like him, unique people should have unique eyes.

He wished his eyes were dark brown, the darkest brown possible, so they almost looked black. Those boring eyes would fit a boring kid like him.

“You ready, Broseph?” Billy asked with a trace of concern in his voice. Spencer was thinking awfully hard about something.

“Oh, uh, yea,” Spencer responded a few seconds later.

“That was some intense thinking there,” the other boy joked, nudging Spencer in his side.

“Yea,” Spencer mumbled nervously.

“You ready?” Billy asked again with the same concern in his voice against before.

“Uh, I gotta use the bathroom first.”

“Okay,” and with that Billy plopped on the bed, flicking the tv on.

_Uck, the news?_

Billy hated the news, the only thing he found necessary was the weather reports, everything else either didn't matter, or could have nothing done about it. 

As for now though, the reporter was speaking of a storm that was apparently coming later today that would lead into tomorrow.

He frowned, they'd probably be in Oregon by then, and the storm probably wouldn't affect them, and that was the problem. 

Billy had a strange atteaction to storms, he even liked to sit out in them sometimes, and let the rain drench his body. It helped him clear his mind, and he was able to write better lyrics. _Maybe it'll be raining in Oregon._ Must be nice to have someone care about where you are.

He sat the phone back down and made his way back to the bed. A few moments later Spencer emerged from the bathroom.

“You think you could stay with me another day?” Billy asked in a humorous tone, though he was completely serious.

“What?” 

Billy began to laugh again, “nothing, come on let's go.” 

He grabbed Spencer's arm and pulled him out the door.

**….**

“So he didn't answer?” Rajeev asked.

“No, some guy did. He said that Spencer was busy and that he'd be back soon, then he hung up.” Shanilla explained for the hundredth time.

“So what do you think happened?”

“Well his parents are out of town for one of Jessica's things, so maybe he just went with them.”

“What!” Rajeev basically screamed, “Spencer hates family vacations, there's no way he'd go to one of those.”

But Shanilla was already gone, she'd gotten out of the car, and was now walking up the boy's steps.

“Nilla, we can't keep doing this, haven't you heard of breaking and entering? That's a thing, and you can go to _jail_ for it.”

“We have a key dummy,” Shanilla pointed out, shoving the key in her brother's face.

“Besides, it's not like Mr. and Mrs. Wright would care.”

Rajeev huffed, and followed his sister in through the door. 

“I'll check his room to see if there are any clues as to where he went,” Shanilla announced, heading towards the stairs.

“And I'll check the kitchen for food- uh, clues too.”

“Whatever,” Shanilla mumbled.

When she got to his room there was nothing immediately wrong with it, but once she looked around closer she found that there were so many things off.

A bunch of his things that were usually on his shelves were scattered across the floor; his favourite blanket was missing, his favourite pants, and, obviously, his shoes.

A few of his USB’s were missing, and most importantly his camera was gone. Spencer only took his camera with him when he'd be away for a few days

“You never know what could happen, my house could flood, it could burn down, someone could rob the place; you always gotta be prepared,” he'd once said. _He's so uptight._

All signs pointed to him being out of town with his family. But then who was that guy?

_“You're probably looking for Spencer, he's busy right now, but if you're wondering where he is, don't worry. He'll be back soon.”_

“Ugh, there's nothing to eat here,” Rajeev whined, momentarily disrupting Shanilla’s thoughts, “Let's hit up the WiFri before school and think about it there.”

“Emergency money!” the girl blurted, pushing past her brother.

"What?"

Whenever Spencer's parents were out of town they'd always leave him emergency money, if it was still there then Spencer _had_ to be with them.

_Come on, come on.._

_It's here._

Shanilla let out a sigh. _He's safe, and with his family; Spencer's fine._

Still though, that guys voice played over and over again in her head. Things didn't connect all that well now, but this was all she had to go off of, and she wanted things to be okay. So, for now, she was content.

“Let's go, Rajeev,” she called up to her brother, and they left.

**….**

Spencer was amazed at all the people that were in their pyjamas, he'd felt a little embarrassed at first, but it was a thing tons of people did, apparently.

It did make sense though, you can get food here, so why not enjoy it in your pj's with everyone else. He liked doing things with other people involved, the fact that they were all experiencing this thing in a different way made him feel closer to them, even if he didn't know them.

The two boys grabbed a plate, and then found a seat. The dining hall wasn't that crowded, but there were enough people to the point where you had to look for a seat.

“So what time did you plan on leaving here?” Spencer asked.

“Whenever,” Billy responded, poking at his food.

“Oh.”

They began to eat in silence, as silent as things can be in a room full of people.

“Are you okay?” Spencer questioned nervously.

“Totes.” Billy gave a fake smile, and continued with his meal. 

It was a strange feeling, what Billy was feeling now. He'd thought Spencer was this loner guy with no friends. He figured no one would miss the guy if he was gone. He thought they were the same, but that girl he'd talked to was obviously one of Spencer's friends.

He didn't want to take the boy away from people that loved and cared for him, now he had to rethink everything.

Billy hadn't even finished his breakfast before he threw it all away.

“We have to be out of here by noon, so we can leave then,” he explained, and they made their way back to their room.

**….**

“So, if we go back the way we came we should get back to Sacramento, and from there we can get to Oregon,” Billy said thinking out loud.

“We should use a GPS this time though,” Spencer suggested.

“Right.”

At that moment Spencer's phone rang.

“It's your mom,” Billy announced.

“Can you put it on speaker?” Spencer asked a little too eagerly. 

“Yea?” Spencer called out to the phone.

“Spence, mom told me to tell you that we'll be gone a little longer, maybe a week?,” a voice started, “Because yours truly kicked ass at the karate competition and they wanna sign me up for a state competition, and then eventually I could be best in the country!”

“That's really cool, good luck,” congratulated, trying to sound as happy as possible.

“Ugh, you could at least act happy for me,” she joked, “See ya, Spence. Love you.”

“Love you too Jess..” Spencer responded sarcastically.

And then the phone went silent.

“That your sister?” Billy asked.

“Yea.” Spencer hated talking on the phone in front of people, it was one of the most embarrassing things you could do, especially with speaker phone.

But when you were driving, and you figured your mom was calling, whom you hadn't spoken to in days, speakerphone was kind of your only choice.

“She seems nice.”

Spencer wanted to laugh. “When we're away from each other she could pass for a decent sister, but at home we're always fighting.”

Billy couldn't see Spencer fighting, no matter how many times he tried to picture it, he seemed too uptight and nervous to fight with anyone, but then again, he knew next to nothing about the boy.

He gave a satisfied “hmm,” and turned on some music.

“You know how earlier today you asked me to stay with you another day?” Spencer asked suddenly.

“You heard that?” Billy asked, laughing nervously.

“Well, apparently my parents are gonna be gone a few more days, my friends haven't called, and next week is spring break, so,” he trailed off.

“Sooo?” Billy questioned eagerly.

“So could I stay with you until then?”

“Uhh,” Billy thought. On one hand he could tell Spencer that his friends did infact call, but on yhe other hand Spencer was planning on staying a whole other week, and it's not like Billy minded.

It's not like he minded not having to be alone for atleast one more week, and besides they'd call again right? Right. If they really cared about him they'd call again, and that way Spencer wouldn't have to find out that Billy had sort of been invading his privacy.

“Okay,” he finally said.

Spencer let out a breath that he'd been unintentionally holding.

“Uh, then if that's the case, can we make a stop back at my house before we head to Oregon?”

“You're the driver,” Billy pointed out, “if you wanna drive back I don't mind.”

But a part of Billy did mind, he didn't know why, but he did.

So instead of heading to Oregon, they were on their way back to L.A.

“Ehmm, if you don't mind me asking,” Billy started, “what do you need to go back for?

“My parents always leave me emergency money when they leave. I never actually use it, but they keep adding to it whenever they leave, I dunno how much is there, but figured why not,” Spencer explained, “and besides, if I'm gonna skip school I've gotta unplug the landline.”

Billy smirked, so Spencer wasn't all he cracked up to be; he was a lot more.


	6. Small Talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soz for my lack of knowledge on California weather, I'm from Illinois so I can only go by what I read on the interwebs, but that's kinda hard when you hear different stories.. but audino, sorry.

It was around 4 when they finally got to Spencer's house, but there was a bit more money than Spencer’d thought there'd be. 

_What kind of emergencies do they think there'll be?_

“There’s about 900 bucks,” Spencer announced, handing the money to Billy.

Billy looked confused. “What's this..”

Spencer shrugged, he didn't know how to explain it. Billy'd spent quite a bit of money on Spencer, more than the brunette was comfortable with at least, and he wanted to pay him back. Besides, it's not like Spencer needed the money.

“Keep it, its yours dude, besides I've got enough money,” Billy assured. 

The brunette then felt stupid.

“Don't be like that,” Billy coaxed, seeing Spencer's face go red, “you've done a lot for me and I appreciate it.” 

He was quiet for a moment, then walked over to Spencer.

“Thanks,” he muttered, giving the boy a hug.

In that moment he realised how much smaller Spencer was than him, and Spencer noticed how much taller Billy was than him.

Spencer didn't feel awkward or tense, he hadn't gotten a hug in a long time, he barely even hugged Rajeev and Shanilla, but now he felt like he'd actually done something right. That was the best part about being a fuck up your whole life, once you did something right, it felt great.

Billy was confused, he'd been alone for so long, and now that he'd been hanging out with someone he was doing the same thing that drove people away in the first place.

Billy was a really friendly, loud child, but he was also a really touchy person, and when you were that kind of person things were weird, when you had no boundaries it was kind of hard to know when you'd gone too far; and when you were kids that was fine, but once you got older, it was fine for girls, but most guys didn't like clingy. Billy understood that, but what he didn't understand was why after years of being alone he was doing the same things that got him to where he was right now.

He didn't want to scare Spencer away, but that was inevitable. If he and Spencer were going to be spending anymore time together it was a given that he'd get attached to the boy, it was what he'd do after that though, and he had a feeling that it wouldn't turn out good.

**….**

“So, not that it's any of my business, but you said you had all the money you needed, but you can't get that on minimum wage, right?” Spencer questioned.

They'd been sitting in Spencer's room talking about nothing in specific and decided to spend the night at Spencer's house, and then leave tomorrow. It was kind of like they were starting all over again. So obviously they had to find a way to pass the time.

“I'd been planning to leave a long time before I actually left, so I had multiple jobs, and I just saved my money since it's not like I really have things to buy. And then sometimes I make money off my guitar playing. I've played a few local shows here and there, and. Uh, yea,” Billy explained.

_But why’d you want to leave?_

Spencer wanted to ask Billy why, he wanted to know what could drive someone to want to run away, but instead he just replied with an ‘oh.’

“Oh yea, remember how you said you'd show me one of your movies?” Billy recalled.

“You said they were all here, so you'd show me one of your short ones, but now you can show me a real one.”

Spencer had totally forgotten about that, and he'd hoped Billy had forgotten about it too, but apparently life didn't want to be nice to him.

“They're all really bad,” Spencer mumbled, his face turning red. In reality the only people that have ever seen his films were his parents, and Rajeev and Shanilla. Jessica was definitely a no no, she'd never let him live them down, but what about Billy?

_Would he laugh?_

But he did sort of promise he would, even though he technically hadn't promised, but.

“They can't be that bad if you've been doing this for a while,” Billy pointed out.

Spencer stayed quiet.

“Come on,” Billy whined, nudging the brunette in the arm.

“Okay..” Spencer mumbled, going over to one of his shelves.

“This is, I guess, my best one,” he announced holding up a CD case.

“Whoa, this is totally neat,” Billy applauded.

Instead of a whole DVD case, they used a CD case.

“Yea, the cover art is a lot better than the actual film, my friend Shanilla’s a great artist, so she designed it.”

Shanilla. Billy had talked to her earlier today, he began contemplating whether or not he should tell Spencer about the call. He convinced himself that she'd call again, and that they could discuss whatever then, but for now it was fine.

Billy didn't hate the film, he didn't love it either, but a part of him did. It wasnt hid style, he hted horror films, but when people worked hard on things it was better to focus on the good things and appreciate it. Criticism was a good thing, but sometimes it was better to just enjoy something someone worked hard on, and like it for what it was, not dislike it for what it wasn't.

Spencer's face was red the whole time, this was so embarrassing, it was always embarrassing to view your old work, it was just a cringe attack central. Almost like listening to youright own voice on record.

“That was so bad,” Spencer groaned.

"Agreed,” Billy joked .

Spencer threw a quick glance in Billy's direction.

“Kidding,” Billy assured, putting his hands up.

Spencer gave an annoyed sigh, but smiled. 

“Anyway, you can sleep on the couch downstairs, or,” Spencer hesitated here, “you could sleep in here.”

“I mean, not in here, but,” he stuttered, his words were a mess.

“I'd be honored to sleep on your floor,” Billy interrupted.

Spencer let out a sigh, _why am I like this?_

He went into his closet and pulled out a bunch of blankets.

“You can sleep on those,” he suggested, “and don't worry, they're all clean.”

“Why do you even have these?"Billy asked, gathering all the blankets in his arm, and hugging them. "I mean it's not like it'll ever get cold enough to need them."

Spencer thought Billy looked small next to the blankets, not because the boy was small, but because the blanket were overly big.

"I dunno, we've always just had them," he explained hesitantly, he honestly didn't know.

After a few minutes Billy's small, makeshift bed was finished.

“And you can use one of my pillows, I'll get a clean cover for it,” Spencer finished.

Eventually they'd gotten ready for bed and were each in bed with only the light from the tv to light up the room

“So why'd you ask me to sleep with you?” Billy asked once they'd gotten settled in.

“I- I didn't,” Spencer stuttered.

“I mean, it was a suggestion.”

“For your sake.”

“Are you implying that I'm afraid of the dark?” Billy asked with a laugh.

“No, I just-”

“Cause I am,” he confessed.

“Remember Saturday night? It was me that couldn't sleep, I was terrified; being out there all alone in there middle of nowhere in the dark. I was totally freaked out.”

“Really? I thought you could sleep like a baby in the dark?” Spencer joked.

Billy groaned.

“It's okay, I'm scared too,” Spencer admitted sheepishly.

“Of the dark I mean, in my house.”

“But this is your home, why are you afraid of your own house?” Billy questioned, he was confused.

“When I'm all alone like this, at night it gets kind of creepy. There's the basement and the attic which are pretty weird places on their own, and I'm big on horror movies, so all those things in addition to the dark don't really mix well,” the brunette explained.

“Which is why I asked you to sleep up here.”

Billy didn't know how to respond to that. It was cute, like a little child. Billy didn't mind the dark when he knew his surroundings, he felt safe; so in a house he probably wouldn't be scared. But the situation they were in two days ago was freaky scary, but Spencer didn't seem to be scared then, he'd even gotten out of the car while it was dark.

“Can you play a song?” Spencer asked, sitting up from where he lay. Billy could see him vaguely due to the tv light.

“You still need a song even though Im here? That's rough Spencer,” Billy accused.

“No it's not that, I just-”

“It's fine, I'll play you one,” he answered with a small laugh. It wasn't normal how offended Spencer got by his jokes, but he found it amusing.

He sat up and thought a moment.

“Okay, this is a ‘Short Song’,” Billy joked, “but I think you'll like it.”

Spencer didn't understand why Billy was laughing, but he lay on his tummy facing Billy, waiting patiently for him to begin the song.

Then Billy began to strum slowly. Spencer liked how Billy always slowed the songs he played down. It made them more enjoyable, so you could feel every line; his music wasn't over as soon as it started, it was able to live on as long as possible.

-  
_“I found myself in a late night drives without a destination_. 

_All I had were thoughts about the past_.

_And a list of my favorite songs to keep me company, but I still struggle and lose myself everyday._

_I always find myself lost in every line of all these songs_

_But I felt better when I saw that this is life_

_And in life were gonna cry_

_In life were gonna lose sleep_

_Were gonna feel helpless_

_But thats how its got to be..._

_But that's how it's got to be..._

_When you lose yourself you'll find what you're looking for…_

_But that's how it's got to be..._

_I'm growing past who I used to be..._

_But that's how it's got to be..”_  
-

By the time the song was over, even though it'd only been a couple of minutes, Spencer was fast asleep. 

“Night, Spence,” Billy whispered before lying back and closing his eyes. He fell asleep with his guitar in his arms, like he'd done so many times before.

**….**

Waking up felt so right, but so wrong at the same time. Spencer was used to waking up like this every morning, but the past couple of days he'd woken up on an uncomfortable couch and on Billy's lap, so part of him kinda of expected to wake up feeling confused, or uncomfortable, but it was the opposite of that.

He got up at around 5:30, pretty usual for him, which made him wonder. He'd woken up pretty late the past few days, he wondered if when you woke up depended on the place you were in. Like now he was at home he'd gotten up at his usual time, but yesterday he'd gotten up around 6, and the day before that it was even later- it was just a thought. 

Billy was still asleep, on the floor, he'd had one arm stretched above him, and the other on his guitar, which was lying on his chest. Spencer then realised he'd fallen asleep in the middle of the song Billy was playing, the song he asked Billy to play, and he suddenly felt bad.

He grabbed his glasses and glanced at the boy on his floor. Billy looked soft in his sleep, that was the only way Spencer could explain it. He was surrounded by those gigantic blankets that made him look small. Billy's skin was so clear, unlike his with all those stupid freckles. The way his bangs lay to the side of his forehead, and how his hairline was still a little curly… 

Spencer sighed, and walked to the bathroom.

 _Why can't I be like him?_ He wondered, running his toothbrush under the faucet water.

Billy was so great at a lot of things; he knew how to talk to people, he was a great singer and guitarist, he was great under pressure, and most of all, he was doing this. He was leaving his shitty life behind to find something better; to start over; only something Spencer could ever dream of doing. Billy was great.

_Why me though?_

Spencer still didn't understand why Billy chose him to live his temporary adventure with. Was it just a spur of the moment thing? He wanted to ask, but he didn’t know how, or rather, he wasn't sure if he'd like the answer.

“Hey, Spence you in there?” Billy called from outside the door.

“Oh, y-yea,” Spencer started, rinsing his mouth out, then walking over to the door, “if you need to use it I'll-”

“Nah, bro. I'm good, you just weren't in your room, but it was really early, so,” he trailed off, stretching, he wasn't sure what he was trying to say, he was still half asleep.

“Oh, no. I usually get up early,” Spencer explained. “You can go on back to sleep if you want.”

“Okay,” Billy concurred, scratching his head, “Just wake me up when you're ready to go.”

“Oh, yea, you can take my car if you need to go anywhere,” he added, then disappeared back into Spencer's room.

The brunette made his way down the stairs to his fridge, nothing.

He was supposed to go shopping Saturday, but we all know what happened then, so there was no food to fill his tummy.

_He did say I could use his car._

But what would he get? Spencer hated traditional breakfast foods: eggs, bacon, sausage, and biscuits, and preferred the fancy type stuff that the WiFri and other restaurants sold. Even though it wasn't technically ‘quality’ food, what it was made of was what got Spencer.

He needed something simple enough for him to be able to cook, but not eggs, bacon, sausage and biscuits simple.

_I'll see when I get there._

He walked back up to his room to change his clothes, but was instead met with Billy's guitar playing.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, standing awkwardly in the doorway.

“Its cool dude, it's your room, you ain't intruding, Bill assured, sitting the instrument in his hands down.

“I thought you'd gone back to sleep.”

“I was gonna, but I couldn't,” Billy explained, falling backwards onto the blankets under him.

“These blankets are so neat,” he praised, sitting up, gathering the fabric up in his arms, “ you think I could keep one, you know for when I'm gone?”

“If you want,” Spencer responded, amused. Billy was always in such a good mood, which made Spencer think of yesterday, when Billy wasn't in such a good mood.

“So what are you up to, you've gotta have something exciting to do in this room,” Billy asked curiously.

“Actually, I was gonna make breakfast, but I forgot to go to the store, so there's no food,” Spencer explained, grabbing a pair of pants.

“Oh, you're going to the store? I’ll go too,” Billy announced and ran out the door.

He came back a few minutes later, his hair had been combed, the only noticeable difference, but he'd also washed his face and brushed his teeth.

“You're not gonna change,” Spencer asked.

“Nah, I'm fine. Besides nothing wrong with wearing your pj's to the store at this time of day,” Billy assured, walking down the stairs.

“Isn't that a bit dirty?” Spencer questioned.

“Depends on when you go,” Billy started, opening the front door.

“If it's early like this then it's fine, cos you know people are just getting up,” he paused to get in the car.

“But if it's like noon and you're still in your pj's, and going out like that you've got problems, dude.”

“Same when it's late at night, if you've wasted the whole day in your pj's you could at least look a little presentable when going out to the store.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Spencer mumbled, starting the car.

“There are exceptions though, like if you plan on spending a lot of time at the store this early, wearing pyjamas is not okay,” Billy clarified.

“Or if you're planning on spending like 10 minutes in the store it's acceptable anytime after morning.”

“So if you're only gonna spend 10 minutes in the store then pj's are okay, but if you're literally going shopping, then you should really change your views on life.”

“And is that socially correct, or just a Billy thing?” Spencer joked.

“Its a Cobra thing, but it should be accepted socially now that you mention it.”

Spencer only laughed, he wasn't good at talking without sounding incredibly awkward, but he was good at laughing at things that may or may not be funny.

Billy flicked through the radio stations, muttering something about how nothing good was playing, and eventually settled on a station playing City of Angels by 30stm.

**….**

“So, what are we searching for?” Billy asked walking besides Spencer with one of those baskets you got instead of carts.

“Well, what do you want?”

“Hmmm?” Billy thought for a moment. “Dunno, let's just get whatever looks good,” he then suggested.

They grabbed stupid things like yogurt, and chips; things that weren't even breakfast. And in the end they just settled for PB&J.

“Remember Smooth, never crunchy,” Billy’d said.

“PB- smooth, jam-strawberry, yogurt- vanilla, chips- doritos, milk- whole, and bread- potato; that's a great breakfast right there,” Billy listed

“If you say so.”

“And grapes, and strawberries,” Billy added.

So Spencer ended up having yogurt and fruit for breakfast, while Billy had a sandwich or two.

When they finally decided to get going it was around 7.

“So, uh, since this is probably the last time I'll see your house, how about you give me a little house tour?” Billy suggested. He felt weird, being in this house twice, but not seeing everywhere, it was super unfulfilling, that added with the fact that he'd most likely never see the place again left him feeling empty.

“Uhm, okay.”

And that's how Spencer ended up giving Billy a tour of his home.

“So, you know where the bathroom, and my room are,” he began.

“This is my parents room,” he introduced, holding the door open, so Billy could see inside.

“That,” he said pointing to a black door, “is Jessica's room, I'd show you inside, but she'd probably notice and end up killing me.”

“How, she's not even here,” Billy asked in disbelief, putting his hand on the handle.

“She will,” Spencer assured, pushing Billy’s hand away.

“That's the attic I mentioned last night,” he explained, gesturing towards a string that hung from the ceiling.

“We don't go up there…”

He then led Billy down stairs.

“Living room, and kitchen, as you know, and that's the basement,” he pointed to a grey door, "I don't go down there either, and then there's the backyard, but I don't think that's really part of the house.”

“Can I still see it?” Billy asked.

“If you want.”

So Spencer lead Billy to his back yard, and they sat in the grass. It wasn't fancy or anything, just a small, fenced, field of grass with a few dandelions, chairs and a table; it looked cute and homey.

Billy pulled out his phone and snapped a picture.

“Its nothing special,” Spencer said softly, pulling up a dandelion.

“Yea it is,” Billy argued, “ ‘cause it's yours.”

Spencer's face turned red. _He thinks I'm special?_

“You're really cool for helping me you know, Spence, and I want to remember you,” Billy admitted, pulling up his own dandelion, “ You may not think you're special, but you're special to me.”

_He thinks I'm special._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im also sorry for my lack of knowledge on everything in this story tbh. I'm bad at development & i move things way too fast, but thanks you guys that do like this and read it, you guys really mean a lot to me. Soz if I offended any of you pyjama wearers, don't hate me :p


	7. Short

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for my lack of updating, I'm a sucker for anime, and I've been drawing a lot and ocing, so I apologise for that. My spring break is coming up in a few days, so I owe you guys like 2 more chapters, but I'll probably get out more than that depending on the time, but as always thank you and hope you enjoy. This chapter is also little shorter than usual, but enjoy.

They were back in Sacramento, Spencer’d persuaded Billy to let him take a break from driving, so they parked Viper in a parking garage, and found themselves inside a small café in the middle of the city.

It was brown on the inside- the café, and there were tons of posters around everywhere, and there was writing on the wall. There were paintings everywhere; Spencer took a few pictures. It was the kind of place you only saw in photographs, the kind of place you never knew actually existed, but secretly hoped it did. It was a hippie thing, and even though Spencer wasn't a hippie, he still loved it.

“Look at this Spence,” Billy practically yelled, poking his finger into a flyer. “It's a concert for local musicians!”

“I don't think you're a local musician,” Spencer teased, taking a sip of his coffee.

“Pff, whatever,” Billy scoffed.

His eyes suddenly got big. “But it's Friday night!”

“What about Oregon?”

“Who gives a shit about Oregon right now, we've got plenty of time to get there, but we gotta do this first!”

“You sure?” Spencer questioned.

Billy nodded eagerly.

“So I drank this coffee for nothing then?” Spencer asked amused.

“I'm gonna be up all night.”

“Ahh, don't worry, I'll keep you busy ‘til you get tired,” Billy assured with a wink.

“Wh-whatever,” Spencer stuttered, his face turning red.

“When we get to Oregon I'm gonna have to get a part-time job,” Billy mumbled quietly to himself, going through his wallet.

They'd been on the road for 4 days, they should've been to Oregon by now, but they wasted time going back to his house yesterday, and now they were way off track; Billy had spent way more money than he should have. 

There was gas, and food, and that stupid motel they'd stayed in Sunday, and even though Spencer could now help with paying, Billy still insisted on doing it himself.

Spencer felt a little guilty.

“Oh, yeah,” Spencer recalled, trying not to focus on his thoughts, “how am I gonna get back home-after we're done?”

“Huh?” Billy questioned. He hadn't thought of that, he'd kind of tried to forget that Spencer was eventually going to leave. But he couldn't drive himself, and he wouldn't have enough money by the end of next week.

“We'll figure something out,” he responded with a sigh.

They spent the rest of the day roaming around the city. They'd been there a few days ago, but there were still things that could be done, and places they could see all for the low price of free.

They mostly just did sightseeing- walking through parks, walking on the sidewalks, taking lots of pictures, recording a few videos, almost getting hit by multiple cars- but that was fine. Sightseeing is one of the best ways to spend your time in a new place. Only to end the day where they began it: in Billy's van.

“Where to?” Spencer asked, hopping into the driver's seat.

“I don't really want to sleep in this car tonight” Billy started, yawning, “So maybe we should just find a hotel, or something.”

“Billy it's like 9 o'clock, _and_ we're in the city, and have no reservations. I doubt we'll be able to find anything,” Spencer explained.

“Don't doubt The Cobra,” Billy instructed, “now onwards my trusty comrade.”

Spencer rolled his eyes and hesitantly, started up the car, and then they began their what should've been short, drive.

Spencer was right, finding a hotel room, a cheap one at that, on a night like tonight, in a place like this, was going to be unbelievably difficult.

Eventually they pulled into a lot for a hotel- it wasn't too fancy, but nice enough to be in the city, and maybe by a miracle the place had a room available.

“I'll pay,” Spencer announced, quickly stepping in front of Billy. A part of him knew that Billy wouldn't let him pay, but he wanted to. He was either going to pay now, or give Billy the money back later. He wanted to contribute something to this trip, and that was the only way he knew how.

Billy opened his mouth to oppose, but then decided not to; he'd ask about it later.

“Since I got the bed last time, you can have it this time,” he decided when they made it up to their room.

“No, it's fine, I can take the couch,” Spencer explained. 

“But you paid for the stupid room, so you get the bed,” Billy imitated.

Spencer didn't know what to say. “Y-you. Cant. Do that,” he stuttered.

Billy gave him a smile, one of those smiles that made you want to punch someone in the face. 

In retrospect it was kind of stupid to be fighting over something as stupid as ‘who gets to sleep in the bed’ but that's where they found themselves.

So that was it then, Spencer would take the bed, and Billy would take the couch, simple as that- except it wasn't.

Yes, this hotel was a lot better than the crappy one they'd stayed in before, but it was still a couch, and couches weren't nearly as comfortable as beds, and Spencer really didn't know what the problem was, but he wanted Billy to have the bed.

“Well then we can sleep in it together,” Billy teased.

He honestly hadn’t meant for things to go the way they did after that, but he should have at least expected it.

Spencer got all red and stuttery and nervous and confused.

“I was kidding,” Billy blurted with a laugh.

“Oh.”

“Unless you want to.”

“No.”

Billy felt both offended and amused at Spencer's choice, but at least their arguing would be over.

So Spencer, guiltily, took the bed, and Billy slept on the couch.

“Hey, Spence,” Billy called from his spot on the couch.

The room was dark except for the light from the tv.

“Hmm?”

“Why are you so, I dunno, eager to save my money?” Billy asked. 

Spencer was quiet for a moment, a long moment, so long that Billy had thought the boy’d gone to sleep.

“Because,” he began, “I want to pay you back.”

“There are so many more important things to me than stupid money, Spencer,” Billy explained.

“Yea, but what else can I really do though?” Spencer asked, “I mean just driving you around isn't enough, when you're still paying for everything.”

“So I figured I could pay you back, or at least split the pay a bit for the time being.”

“You're gonna be living on your own, so you need the money, you shouldn't be spending it on an extra person.”

Billy almost did a double take, this was the most he'd heard Spencer say, and sure he hasn't known the guy that long, but he'd figured he had a pretty solid grasp at who he was, but Spencer just kept surprising him.

“Spence, you're not a burden. I actually need you right now, so whatever I do is because I need to do it,” Billy explained.

“It was kinda my choice to invite you along, and because of that I'm responsible for you and whatever happens to you. I gotta do what I think is best for both of us.”

“I'm spending the money cos I have to, I'm doing it cos I want you to be okay enough to stay, I don't need you ditching me mid way through because you're uncomfortable, or something.”

The two boys stayed quiet after that. Billy had hoped nothing he’d said had offended the brunette, but on the contrary Spencer felt fine.

He felt better than fine. Someone needed him.

He didn't mid if the need was for selfish reasons or not, the point was he was needed. Someone actually wanted him around, someone needed him around, so there was no way he could be a burden to somone who needed him, _right?_

Billy thought he was special, and he needed him, as of now, but Spencer thought that was fine.

He lay in his bed with his eyes closed, and a small smile. _He was needed._


	8. Carnival Food, Outside, and Probably Sweat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Radio Hive// Weatherbox &**
> 
>  
> 
> **It has nothing to do with the chapter, but it's a good song.**

Of course, any normal person would just admit it when they knew they had a thing for someone. But when your thoughts constantly told you ‘don't get attached’ repeatedly, those feelings could be mottled.

If you're one to constantly question every person that comes into your life it's quite easy to get those feelings mixed up.

Constantly wondering whether you're being annoying, or whether the other person actually hates you is just the beginning of a series of emotions. Emotions that could either go one of two ways.

You could live in constant fear that this person is going to leave you eventually and leave it at that, or you could take it a step further and feel so much as though you need this person to keep you sane.

And that is where Billy and Spencer have found themselves, they just didn't know it.

It started with a simple call.

**….**

“Hey, Billy, could you get that for me?” Spencer asked, he was driving, and everyone knows you shouldn't text and drive.. especially if you were Spencer.

The phone read _mom_. 

Spring break was coming to an end, and in just a few days Spencer would be back home, that cozy, _homey_ home.

What would Billy do then? The whole reason he'd asked Spencer to come with him was because his license was suspended. Of course he _could_ drive himself, but...

But Billy _hated_ driving! He hated the people in the cars, how slow they were, the way they drove at just the right speed to stop you from being able to pass them, even though that idiot in front of you was driving way to slow, and the jerk behind you was all up your ass- Billy hated driving.

He didn't understand how people could be so stupid, and _that_ usually lead him down a path of breaking a few of the rules of the road. 

And also but, he didn't have his licence. And if he was going to drive he was most likely going to run into stupid people, and if that happened, he was almost 100% guaranteed to break a few rules, which would get him into more legal trouble.

He knew this, he knew how he was, and he knew that he wouldn't make it all the way to where he was going without any run ins with the cops.

So he’d searched for someone like Spencer, someone who wouldn't mind running away for a bit with him.

He’d figured, once he landed a place to stay he'd work and earn enough money to pay off that stupid license ticket and he'd be able to drive again.

But what he didn't expect was that he'd actually get attached to whomever that person was. But in his defense, he didn't expect Spencer to be what he was. 

He'd figured Spencer was just some dorky, goody two shoes that wouldn't mind doing a guy favour- and in a way he was right. Spencer was a dorky goody two shoes, but he was also broken. He'd found that out by talking to him.

The past 2 days he'd learned that Spencer thought his friends and family hated him. He'd learned that Spencer was that kid that everyone bullied because he let them. He'd learned that Spencer needed love, and Billy had so much to give, but no one to give it to.

Everyone always thought he was a strange, perverted child. They thought he was clingy, needy, and obsessive, so he'd decided to stay away from people for a while.

Which is why he didn't understand. He'd distanced himself from people for so long, he should be one of those cold, assholes that never caught feelings, but he was the same old Billy he'd known for years- and he hadn't even known Spencer that long.

But he hadn't yet figured out why Spencer was turning him back into the clingy child that he used to be. And maybe that was why he did what he was about to do.

“Uhh, it's just a bill collector,” Billy lied, letting the phone continue to ring.

_Shit?_

Spencer mumbled an ‘oh’ and kept his concentration on the road, when his phone began ringing again.

He glanced over at Billy.

“Wrong number?” he said nervously, turning the ringer off. It was his mom again.

“Why don't I just turn it off until we get where we're going?”

“But what if my mom calls?” Spencer questioned.

Spring break was ending, meaning they should be on their way back soon. Jessica had already missed a week of school, missing anymore would put her totally behind track.

Billy tensed at the question and quickly tried to think of an excuse.

“Maybe she'll leave a text, and besides, bro, you can't text or talk while driving, so it'd just be a distraction.”

“Guess you're right,” Spencer mumbled to himself.

Billy gave a sigh, and pressed Spencer's phone off.

The two made their way to the park that the concert was at tonight silently. The silence was filled with one sided tension.

Billy shouldn't have done that. _Would Spencer be mad if he found out?_

Would Spencer care?

Billy didn't know the answer to any of those questions, so he didn't know what to do, all he knew was that Spencer was supposed to be leaving in a few days, and he couldn't let that happen until he understood why Spencer brought out this side of him that he hadn't seen in years in just a few days.  
….

“I've never seen so much food in my life,” Spencer noted to himself. 

“Yea,” Billy mumbled, he was still a bit uneasy.

“Don't be nervous, you'll do great,” Spencer encouraged, thinking stage fright was getting to the taller boy. 

“What? The Cobra knows he's gonna do fine,” Billy argued. “But I still appreciate the good vibes.”

Spencer rolled his eyes and continued eyeing all the different stalls. Spencer wasn't the type of kid to be obsessed with food, but when the moment presented itself, with food literally surrounding you, it was kinda normal to want to devour it all.

“They usually give out samples at those things, so you can taste what you wanna buy,”Billy informed. 

“You've been to one of these before?” Spencer asked, leading Billy to a samples lady.

“Duh! What kind of rockstar would I be if I didn't get involved?”

Spencer shrugged, popping the food in his mouth.

“This is good,” he then mumbled.

“They probably give out enough samples to fill you up,” Billy explained, “ _if_ you don't eat much.”

“And even still, since I'm poor I come for the food.”

“That's the only reason you come?” Spencer asked.

“Of course not, they're sometimes producers here looking for young, hot, talented musicians, like myself.”

The brunette groaned, “has anyone ever offered you a contract?”

“Yea, but The Cobras not ready for that, I haven't even finished writing a single song yet,” he paused to swallow, “and I don't wanna be one of those people that have everyone writing music for them.”

“I guess I get it,” Spencer started, “like how when I enter film festivals.”

“I've never been offered anything, but seeing all the other films opens up new paths and ideas that I haven't explored yet, that I should get into to make my movies better.”

“Uh, right?” Billy didn't know anything about filmmaking, and Billy rarely became inspired by other people, but if that's how Spencer understood it then fine.

After a few more minutes of getting full off samples it was time for the concert to start.

Everyone signed up a few minutes before, and then they played in that order; Billy was last.

He'd played a few songs that were familiar to Spencer, but even more that he'd never heard, though multiple people from the audience obviously had.

Billy's singing was great, and it soon became another video that Spencer would keep to himself.

He'd keep it to remember this moment, and how he felt during the time.

Billy was so good people had even asked him for autographs and pictures, after the show. Of course he wasn't the only one, but it always seemed like a great thing just to have people love you that much.

Or at least, that's what Spencer had imagined.

**…**

_He's bound to figure out sooner or later,_ Billy thought avoiding running into multiple people, _And when he does he's going to leave._

It was now Sunday he and Spencer were still in Sacramento, they were supposed to be leaving soon. Billy had kept this up for 2 days. Spencer _should_ be on his way back home but because of Billy he wasn't.

These last two days were full of ignoring, and deleting calls from his parents.

And yes Billy felt a little bad, but everyone else should feel bad too. If anything it was his family's fault. It was their fault this happened.

If they all gave him love maybe Spencer wouldn't feel as shit about himself like he does now.

There's that saying that says you don't know what you've got until it's gone, and darn right you don't. They took Spencer for granted and they lost him, but here, with Billy, Spencer wouldn't need to feel shit, and lonely anymore because Billy would give him everything he needed- and more.

 _Yea!_ Billy thought, encouraging himself. He'd keep this on for as long as possible, and even once it ends, at least Spencer’d know he was loved.

He always had a way to make things work in his favour.

“Spence! Spence! Spence!,” Billy gasped, repeatedly hitting the smaller boy on the shoulder.

“What? What, what?” Spencer questioned, flinching.

“Look!” Billy said pointing ahead of him. They'd decided to take a stroll through the city.

“It's one of those pop up carnivals!”

“Oh yeah,” Spencer gaped. “ I haven't been to one of those since I was a kid.”

He pushed up his glasses, and pulled out his camera.

“Come on, we gotta go!” Billy squealed. Grabbing Spencer's arm, earning a ‘wait’ from the boy- he'd almost dropped his camera.

They ran quickly, knocking into multiple people.

‘Sorry,’ Spencer would try to say, but Billy was dragging him on too fast. He'd wanted to take a picture of it from far away, but apparently Billy had other ideas, so running until one of them dies it was

By the time they'd made it Spencer felt like dying. He was definitely not in shape, and all that running was not good for his health.

“You okay?” Billy asked, as equally out of breath as the brunette beside him.

Spencer nodded because it was the only thing he could do.

“Don't do much running?” 

Spencer shook his head.

“That's understandable.”

Inside the carnival was pretty impressive for it to be only temporary. Of course there weren't ferris wheels, or rollercoasters, but the fair _did_ have little games where you could win stuffed animals, food, and other _less_ popular rides- like one that spent around, or one that went swinging back and forth.

“Ahh carnival food, I don't think I've missed the smell of it,” Spencer noted, because honestly carnival food isn't that appealing.

“What?” Billy gasped, “carnival food is the best, it may not smell all that great, but it's still food, dude.”

Spencer gave one of those ‘sure’ smiles and averted his attention elsewhere. Billy should have done the same, but he kept his eyes on Spencer.

The sun made Spencer's eyes exceptionally beautiful, they looked olive, or paler than olive, and a little bit minty? But definitely not. Billy had no idea, and apparently neither did the internet. 

“Why don't we go get on that?” Spencer suggested, causing Billy to jump a little. Too bad he hadn't heard a word the boy said.

“O-okay.”

He followed Spencer aimlessly to a line, and they waited.

“Spence, can I take a picture of you?” Billy asked on a whim.

“Oh, why?” he responded nervously.

‘I dunno’ was the only answer Billy gave, and Spencer didn't see anything wrong with it in normal society terms, they were at a carnival, and people liked to take pictures- Spencer got that, but in Spencer terms it meant a forever way to capture a mistake, and he found himself feeling awkward.

“Okay,” he mumbled, and gave an awkward half smile.

He probably looked terrible, the sun was high in the sky, and he had no sunglasses, so his eyes were all scrunched up, and his smile was stupid, and he had his arms crossed, which is _never_ a good idea, and to make it worse Billy was laughing.

Even though he actually wasn't laughing, he was doing one of those things you do when you think something is really adorable and you can't help but laugh, but Spencer didn't know that.

“Is your hair red?” Billy questioned.

Spencer shook his head nervously. 

“The sun makes it look that way,” Billy observed, running a hand through the smaller boys hair.

And Spencer would've been super embarrassed if Billy hadn't shouted ‘is that what we're getting on’ next.

“Uh, yea?” Spencer answered, and now he did have the chance to get red because everyone wanted to know who the shouting asshole was.

“But I don't like heights,” Billy whined.

“We've kinda been standing in this line for a few minutes already, you're just now noticing?”

 _“Well sorry I was too busy paying attention to you to notice what we were standing in line for,”_ was what he wanted to say, but he didn’t really want to admit that to himself, or Spencer. 

He gave an awkward smile.

“I mean we could go do something else, I guess, if you want,” Spencer decided.

“No, no, we can stay here, it's fine, I'll be fine.”

\- He wasn't fine, he held onto Spencer the whole ride, and wouldn't open his eyes, or let go until they were safely seated at a bench.

“I'm sorry, Billy,” Spencer said, feeling bad.

“No, Spence, it's definitely not your fault,” he started quickly, he didn't have time to make Spencer feel bad, not now at least.

“It was all me, you said we could leave, and I didn't want to- it was my fault, I probably even ruined the ride for you.”

“Even though I only did it cos I thought you might be scared.”

Spencer smiled, and rolled his eyes.

“Here, why don't I go win you a prize,” Billy suggested, grabbing Spencer's hand, pointing towards a bunch of game booths.

And Spencer could have protested, but there was honestly no reason to.

**…**

The rest of their time was spent on the ground, or on the closest thing to ground there was.

Billy'd won Spencer a stupid Jake the dog, and they didn't get on any other rides, but they at least still had a nice time.

“We can just sleep in the van tonight,” Billy yawned, “if it's okay with you I mean.”

They'd spent the past few days in a hotel room, instead of one of them getting the bed, Spencer’d decided it'd be best if they took turns sleeping in it, and now they were both back to anything but.

“That's cool.”

They both smelled like outside, and carnival food, and probably sweat, so trying to find a hotel room probably wouldn't be the best idea anyway- unless they wanted to be judged by snobby, pretentious strangers that is.

“You want the back, or the uncomfortable backseat?” Billy questioned.

“Back please,” Spencer chimed with a smile, climbing to the back of the van.

“Haha, yea. Leave me with the backseat.”

Spencer's smile faded. “I mean if you wanted to sleep back here then I don't mind, it is your car I mean,” he explained quickly.

“I was just kidding, but, I uh, wouldn't mind taking up that offer,” Billy laughed, transferring himself to where Spencer was.

“You can stay too,” he added, seeing Spencer getting up.

“We can sleep on that blanket you gave me,” he mumbled, pulling out.

Spencer watched him struggling. Billy always seemed to be in a good mood, how was he able to do that? 

How did he not let life and all its disappointment get to him? Spencer wanted to know.

The two of them struggled to spread the blanket out since you can't stand in the back of a van, but did it the best they could.

“You ever wondered why these things have such big trunks?” Billy asked, not looking for an answer.

“I mean is trunk even the right term? I always tell people I sleep in my trunk, and they get this horrified look in their face.”

He grabbed his guitar.

“I mean calling it the ‘back’ all the time is kinda weird and unfitting.”

Spencer listened intently as Billy babbled on about the backs of vans, while doing soft strums on his guitar until he eventually fell asleep.

“Thanks for listening,” Billy mumbled, noticing the boy had fallen asleep. It was a one sided conversation mostly, but Spencer had still contributed a few laughs, and ‘I guesses’, and a few other sounds to show he was listening.

He turned on his side with his back to Spencer, and one hand on his guitar and fell asleep.

He didn't know what time it was when he woke up, but he knew it was after midnight.

“Are you okay Spence?” he suddenly asked.

“Yea,” Spencer mumbled quickly. He'd had a bad dream, but Billy didn’t need to know that.

“I'm fine,” he clarified, wiping his eyes, then sitting up.

“I'm fine, so you can go back to sleep.”

But then he hesitated, he _had_ to know.

“Billy?” he called out quietly.

“Yea?”

“Did, uh, did anyone try and call me, or text me today?”

Billy could feel his heart beating faster.

_Chill dude, just chill._

“Uh, no,” he tried to say normally.

“I figured,” Spencer whispered to himself, but Billy heard every ounce of hurt in his voice.

And he felt pain too.

He sat up and did the only thing he could do, he wrapped his arms around the smaller boy and hugged him.

 _This is not my fault_ , he tried to convince himself.

_I'm not the one who caused this._

_If he would've gone back this would've happened anyway._

And they fell asleep together, Spencer rested his head on Billy, and Billy kept his arm around Spencer.

And they both smelt like carnival food, and outside, and probably sweat, but that was alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **These chapters are trash, but I'm trying.**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>   **A curse Worth Believing// Into It. Over It.**
> 
>    
>  **Could have quite a bit to do with the story of you're thinking right.**  
> 


	9. Vacancy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about this chapter, it took so long & there isn't even any Billy & Spencer action in it. I just wanted to give some insight on how things were going back home...

“Where is it?” Shanilla questioned, scattering things all over her floor.  
She'd lost something important, and it needed to be found.

“Rajeev, have you seen a little stack of papers!?” she called.

“Wah?” her brother asked, peeking in the doorway.

“You seen a stack of papers about,” she gestured, “this big?”

“Nooo,” Rajeev sang, making his way inside his sisters room.

He glanced around her room until his eyes landed on her bed; He'd spotted the papers, they were there in plain sight. 

He smirked, walked over towards the bed, and hid them behind his back.

She'd always had that habit. Whenever she was looking for something she'd look right over it. It was always right there, but because her mind was all “I LOST IT, I LOST IT” it was apparently a little hard to see things.

“Why are these papers so important anyway?” he asked curiously.

“They're homework I saved for Spence, I figured since he was missing a bunch of school the least I could do is help him catch up,” Shanilla responded, fixing her glasses.

“And then he’ll thank you, and while you're handing the papers to him your eyes will meet, and then you'll stare into each other's eyes and do the smoochie smooch,” Rajeev joked, mimicking the face.

“You're so immature Rajeev, what are you 12?” Shanilla laughed nervously.

“mwah, mwah, mwah,” Rajeev chanted, causing his sister to turn red.

“Here,” he called, tossing the pile of papers at her, “they were sitting on your bed.”

“Really?” she squealed, “why do I always do this?”

“I dunno, why do you always do that?” Rajeev mocked.

“Let's go.”

“Mwah, mwah, mwah,” He repeated as they made their way out the door.

“At least I’m trying to help,” Shanilla justified once they got to her car.

“Yeah, for your own selfish needs though.”

“Not!”

But maybe Rajeev was a little right, maybe, just maybe Spencer would be way too far behind, and he’d need help with the work, and then she’d be able to help him, and something could happen from there.

Of course that was only a fantasy, but she couldn't help hoping one day it would become reality, but what she didn't know now was that her fantasy would stay only that; a story inside her head. A tale that you could only tell a child.

**….**

“When we get home can i have permission to punch Spencer?” Jessica asked from the backseat.

They were finally on their way back home from their extended vacation. They'd been trying to contact Spencer for days, but the were never able to get through. The call went straight to voicemail. No matter how many times they’d call.

“No, honey, maybe he's just mad we didn't take him with us,” her mother said from the driver's seat.

“Spencer's never wanted to come with us before, why would he want to now?” she pointed out.

“Maybe his phone or the charger broke, something,” Hugh, her father, suggested from the seat beside her mother.

“Whatever,” she huffed, crossing her arms. SHe mumbled the word ‘stupid’ and didn't say another word the whole ride home.

But Jessica was right, Spencer never did like to go to these things, so why would he be pissed off about it now. There was some other reason he wasn't answering his phone, but she never would’ve guessed that that reason was that he ran away with some stranger to some place that he’d never been before.

She’d literally punch him so hard it would’ve prevented his past self from doing this somewhere in the universe; but she didn't know that, so she could only dream of What was going on.

When the car pulled up to the house it could be seen that something was wrong. About a week's worth of mail was spilling out of the mailbox, and when they got inside it was even more suspicious.

All the lights were off, there was a faint smell of some breakfast food; Spencer was almost definitely not in this house.

“Spence, we’re home!” his father called.

No answer.

“Maybe he’s at Rajeev and Shanilla’s,” he suggested.

“But that still doesn't explain why he's been avoiding our calls all week.”

“Maybe they were having so much fun that he just wasn't able to answer the phone,” her mother suggested.

“Yeah, you know how many fun things there are here in Cali,” Hugh pointed out.

“Yea because the siamese twins are _total_ party animals,” Jessica said sarcastically. 

She liked to call them that due to the fact that they were together 99% of the time. She never saw them apart from each other. It might be due to the fact that they were both Spencer best (and only) loser friends, but still, she wondered if they literally did everything together.

Then there was a knock at the door, to which the three of them eyed it suspiciously, they then glanced at each other, and Jessica went to the door.

“Oh, it’s you two,” she sighed.

“Nice to see you too, Jessica,” Shanilla greeted with a small smile.

“Whatever, where’s Spencer?”

“What do you mean?” Shanilla questioned.

“Isn’t he with you?” Jessica asked.

“No, obviously not if we’re asking you,” Rajeev answered.

“We just came by to drop off his homework, then noticed you guys were back, so we figured we’d give it to him ourselves,” his sister added.

“There was also the fact that you guys mailbox was stuffed,” Rajeev added.

Jessica sighed, and let go of the door.

It almost slammed shut, but Shanilla caught it with her foot; if Spencer was missing there was no way she’d just leave like this.

“Mooom,” they heard Jessica call, “Shanilla, and Rajeev say that Spencer isn’t with them.”

“Then where is he?” her mother asked concerned, coming around the corner.

“We don’t know.”

Instantly, the woman pulled out her phone to get in contact with the police.

Shanilla, Rajeev, Hugh, and Jessica all gathered around her in their small kitchen waiting for something, anything.

It was strange how fast things could change. How one simple things could ruin your day, or make your emotions go haywire. How it was totally uncalled for.

After minutes of answering questions, and waiting the call was finally over.

They all stared at her, and her back at them.

“They said that they’d be over shortly.”

And that was a long shortly, an extremely long shortly. In reality it was only about 10 minutes, but time always seemed to go slower when you were anxious for something.

They all sat quietly in the living room; Jessica and her parents on the couch, Shanilla in the throw chair, and Rajeev on the floor.

“This is all my fault,” Jane mumbled.

“It's not, we don't even know what happened yet, maybe he’s at another friends,” Hugh comforted.

“We’re Spencers only friends,” Shanilla said sounding more upset than she wanted to.  
“I don’t think that's something to brag about,” Jessica joked.

“Jess, this is no time for jokes,” her father scolded

“Just trying to lighten the mood,” she responded in defense.

Just then there was another knock at the door.

They all stood up, but let Jane get to the door first.

She was out talking to the police for a while, maybe twenty minutes, and when she came back she’d looked like she’d been crying.

“What happened?” Hugh asked.

Jane was quiet for a moment, and then spoke.

“They said that they can't guarantee anything, they can't guarantee they'll find him, and, due to his age, they can't guarantee they'll even get to his case," she started, her eyes beginning to water 

"They said, since he'll legally be an adult in a few weeks, they have more important missing persons cases dealing with the elderly, and those under 18, so if they can get someone out there," a tear rolled down her cheek, "they will, but there are no promises."

“But that's not fair!” Shanilla blurted.

Jessica watched as her father comforted her crying mother.

“It isn’t,” she mumbled, standing up from where she sat.

She then ran up the stairs, Shanilla and Rajeev following.

“What are you doing?” Rajeev asked, seeing her hand on Spencer's door knob, once he reached the top of the stairs.

“I’m gonna see if I can find some clues.”

“Jess, this isn't some mystery book, this is real life, it’s not that easy,” Shanilla explained.

“On the contrary, my dear siamese part une,” Jessica started.

She opened her brother's bedroom door, and walked in.

Shanilla rolled her eyes, but followed, Rajeev close behind.

“What are we doing in here, Brat?” Rajeev questioned.

“Maybe there’ll be some clues as to where Spencer is,” the smaller girl replied.

She glanced around his room, looking for anything out of place, then walked over towards the mirror her brother owned, and stopped.

“You find anything?” Shanilla asked, walking up beside her.

The girl was silent, but kept her eyes glued to something.

_The closets not fully closed._

“We get it, your hair is a _lovely_ shade of purple,” Rajeev started, annoyed.

“But I think we came in here for Spencer, _not_ to admire your hair.”

“Shut up, bozo,” Jessica responded, turning around.

She walked over to the closet, and slowly opened it.

“Blanket,” she mumbled after a while, then walked over to the dresser.

_Clothes.._

_Shoes are gone too…_

“Siamese dorks, when was the last time you saw my brother?”

“Probably, two weeks ago..” Shanilla answered nervously.

“And why, exactly, didn't you call anyone?”

“We tried calling him, but he didn’t answer, so we figured he went with you guys.”

Jessica glared at her.

Shanilla sighed, and sat on Spencer's bed, hearing it come out of her mouth did seem a little wrong.

Your so called best friend goes missing for 2 weeks without telling you, and you just assume he went with his parents to a thing he never had any interest in before? _Totally._

“I was just worried, so I accepted the closest possible good thing as truth,” she tried explaining.

“It's okay,” Rajeev said, sitting next to her for comfort.

“It's not okay,” Jessica interrupted, “how would either of you feel if the other went missing, and someone you could supposedly _"trust"_ knew about it, but didn't tell you!”

“Aren't you the one that always talks about how much you hate Spencer, though?” Rajeev pointed out. “How you wish he'd disappear? Well now you've got your wish.”

“But that's our _thing!_ ” the girl responded, storming out the door.

“Rajeev, you should apologise,” Shanilla muttered.

“But,” her brother protested.

She glared at him.

“Whatever,” He mumbled crossing his arms angrily.

**….**

She splashed water on her face.

_That bozo! Doesn't have a clue as the what he's talking about!_

Yes, she and Spencer had their down times, they had their times where she wanted nothing more than to knock the daylight out of him. That was their relationship the majority of the time, and yes, sometimes she'd yell at him to go fall off a cliff, but she didn't mean it.

How could anyone mean anything like that? At the end of the day, the two had their laughs, they had those times they'd sit together in the living room watching scary movies late at night. Sometimes when things got too scary he'd even let her hold his hand, and he never made fun of her for it afterwards no matter how much she deserved it. And no, they weren't the closest of siblings in the world, but they were there for each other.

She wanted to kick something, but there was nothing to kick, so she did something she hadn't done in a long time; she cried. 

Or more so, tears were falling from her eyes, and she wanted it to stop.

“Stupid! Stupid!” she repeated over, and over again, kicking the wall with her shoe, until something caught her eye.

“Stupid Spencer,” she muttered, kicking the wall again, then ran out of the bathroom.

“ I think I know where Spencer is,” She said loudly once she made it back to her brothers room.  
“Where?” Shanilla and Rajeev asked in unison.

Jessica was silent for a moment, she was thinking.

“Well,” she began, “I don’t know where he is per-se, but his toothbrush is gone...”

“What are you getting at?” Shanilla asked.

“I’m saying, maybe Spencer left on his own. Maybe he isn’t missing, maybe he doesn’t want to be found.”

“But why wouldn't he want to be found, if he’s missing?” Rajeev asked, standing from where he sat.

“I mean, maybe he ran away," she explained, coldly.

“Wh-why would he wanna do that?” Rajeev stuttered, not understanding what the younger girl was putting out.

The three of them became quiet.

Shanilla rustled around in Spencer's drawers, looking for something.

“We should we tell your mom,” Shanilla suggested after a moment.

“No, besides, she wouldn't even believe that,” Jessica muttered.

“What we need to do is think of a motive. Why would he want to run away in the first place,” She explained 

“The last time you guys talked to Spencer," she paused to look at Shanilla, "how was he?”

“Well,” the brunette started.

“We’d gotten to school late again because of him, so Rajeev and I were a bit upset with him, then we talked to him a few days later to let him know we had a family thing to go to, and weren't able to hang out.”

“And that was all?” Jessica asked.

“There was another time,” Shanilla recalled, trailing off.

She took a deep breath. “We’d called Spencer, and then some guy answered his phone saying that he was busy.”

“Did you know the guy?”

The siblings shook their heads simultaneously.

“And you didn't think to mention this first?” Jessica asked annoyed.

“It's not our fault it didn't come up in conversation,” Rajeev said in defense.

Jessica slapped a hand to her face, and sighed.

_How could one person be such a moron?_

The three of them were quiet for a long time. Rajeev was laid back on Spencer's bed, with his feet on the ground, presumably thinking

Shanilla was having an entertaining time going through all Spencer's script books, doing what she described as "looking for any clues as to why he'd want to leave in the first place."

And Jessica found herself having a seat on the floor, picking at the wood, lost in thought.

They'd eventually think of something, but for now, they'd have to use what little information they had, and work from there.

"Hey, Jess?" Rajeev called, not sitting up.

He didn't wait for an answer before saying, "Sorry about what I said before, this is hard on me too, but I shouldn't've took it out on you."

And maybe it was because he'd figured he was just talking to himself, but he didn’t wait for a response from her either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this, look for more children in the next chapter, which should *hopefully* be out sooner rather than later.
> 
> And I also apologise for my lack of being able to portray these guys here, kind of ooc.


	10. Trash Boys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short and fluffy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably ooc, sorry

They were running.

He was running.

And _he_ was also running.

They were running fast, and, probably, for their lives.

“Billy,” Spencer huffed from behind.

“B- Bi-” he stuttered. He was out of breath, that was a thing running did to you when you were Spencer, or just out of shape.

“We.. gotta…. Stop.”

“Hang in there, Spence,” Billy called out, grabbing Spencer's hand.

The smaller boys glasses slid up and down and around his face; he had a hard time seeing. Added to that, it was getting dark.

He used his empty hand to try to keep his glasses steady; he needed new ones, but now wasn't the best time to be worrying about that.

“Get back here you little brats!” a voice yelled from behind them.

By now you probably have some understanding of what was going on.

It'd been a few weeks since the two of them made it to Oregon, they settled for a small little town on the outskirts of the state.

They'd parked Billy’s van, Viper, in a small open forest area, probably a forest preserve parking lot, and they'd been staying there for the past few weeks.

Unfortunately though, not everything was going as peachy as they wanted it to. Due to the fact that there was not an infinite abundance of money in their pockets, (and they had to buy food, and drinks, and a WiFi router because you definitely can't live without WiFi, and all that gas money they were spending) they were bound to run out and need more eventually, so this was the situation they were in.

They'd had gotten multiple part time jobs at multiple stores, and restaurants around the city they were currently in. They'd even took up juvenile jobs like dog walking, or cutting grass, or babysitting.

But no, none of those things were the cause of what they were going through right now. 

Someone thought it would be a good idea to get into gambling, even though the other warned him not to, he thought thought at he'd be good at it, he'd figured he were street smart enough to actually win something, but of course that was not the case. 

More often than not it resulted in the loss of money, but thankfully due to Spencer awesome communication skills (which was basically going on and on about the reasons why he shouldn't do the thing) Billy never bet anything more than 20 bucks a night, but on this night things were different. 

_“Whatever, brotaco!” Billy yelled. “I bet all my money I win this time.”_

_“Billy..” Spencer warned, uneasily._

_“Nah, nah, leave ‘im alone glasses,” the angry looking guy said across from them._

_“If you win, I'll give ya double what you got, but if ya lose, the money's mine,” the man decided, putting a wad of cash on the table._

_“But-” Spencer began in the background._

_“Let's go then!” Billy agreed completely ignoring whatever Spencer had to say. There was so much to gain from this, and Billy just knew he could do it, and he…_

_…_

_…_

_He didn't do it._

_“No fucking fair!” He yelled angrily_.

_The guy across from them laughed._

_“Did you see that, Spence?” Billy questioned, pointing to the table in front of them._

_“I see that you lost,” the brunette commented softly._

_“Because! That! Bozo! Cheated!” Billy yelled._

_“Pay up, rocker boy,” the man said with a smile._

_“No way! I could've won that!”_

_“Billy, just give him the money, I told you not to do this,” Spencer said with a sigh._

_“Double or nothing!” Billy yelled._

_The man across from them laughed._

_Spencer scolded Billy._

_Billy yelled out higher prices._

_“We don't have that kind of money to be betting like this, Billy,” Spencer cried, shaking the boy's shoulders slightly from behind._

_And then Billy grabbed the wad of cash that was on the table, grabbed Spencer's arm, and made a run for the door in 1.2 seconds flat_.

And that's how they got into the situation they were currently in.

On a other side of town, here they were, running from a thug, but all they had to do was make it out of this guy's view, and they were home free.

They ran into town just in time to catch probably the last bus of a day, paid their fee, and plopped down in seats on opposite sides of the empty bus.

“Don't… do that.. again… ever,” Spencer panted.

“Don't worry,” Billy breathed out, “I won't.”

The two sat in silence for a while, getting more air into their lungs. 

“At least we can get a nice meal,” Billy noted, after he was able to breath again.

Spencer focused his gaze on the darker haired boy, and gave an exhausted smile. It was awkward talking in empty places where your conversations could be broadcasted around the whole area, so anything above a whisper he tried to refrain from doing.

Billy gave a small laugh, stood up, and took the empty seat next to Spencer.

“I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news,” Billy started softly, “but I think we're going in the wrong direction.”

“Of course we are,” Spencer mumbled to himself, softly banging his head on the window beside him.

“Don't be down, dude,” Billy comforted, putting a hand on the smaller boys shoulder, “this is fun, being lost.”

“I’ve never seen you so angry before,” Spencer brought up, changing the subject.

“Its just weird, I mean.”

“Ahhh, yea. Well that dude-o was reeeally pushing my buttons back there,” Billy admitted, averting his eyes to the other side of the bus. 

“Of course,” Spencer laughed, gazing up at Billy.

“Don't say it like that,” Billy whined, returning the gaze.

Then they laughed.

“Hey boys, this is the second to last stop of the night,” the bus driver called from the front of the vehicle.

“Oh,” Billy responded, “Should we get off here?”

Spencer nodded, they seemed to be in a good spot, a little shopping area, well lit, and that guy was, hopefully, long gone.

Besides, who knew where they might end up if they stayed….

So the two boys gave their thanks, and hopped off the bus.

They were hit with a cool breeze, causing Spencer to rub his arms, then they made their way across the street, where the shopping center sat.

There were a variety of shops; Bijou (a Macy's like store), Bullseye (Equivalent of Target), pet-world (Pretty obvious) and others- but you get the idea.

There was also a little, or rather big, park on the other side of the street, which would later come in handy for the two.

“Let's go get something to eat,” Billy suggested.

Spencer nodded with a grunt, and they decided try Bullseye.

Another breeze came soon after, and Spencer shivered; it was always a good idea to carry a jacket around.

“When’d it get so cold,” he mumbled, crossing his arms, tightly.

“That's what happens at night Bromeo,” Billy responded, taking off his hoodie, shoving it in Spencer's direction.

“O-oh,” Spencer stuttered, hesitantly taking the hoodie from Billy.

He mumbled a ‘thanks’, and they continued on their way to the store.

Inside, it was brightly lit, and mostly empty. It was about 11 o'clock, or so, but they didn't know due to the fact that Spencer left his in Billy's truck, and Billy's had been dead for hours.

Spencer grabbed one of those small baskets, and followed Billy around the store.

“These stores are so anti-pre-made food,” Billy whined with a hand on his tummy. 

“Lots of their food is pre-made, it just has to be heated up,” Spencer refuted.

Billy glared down at Spencer, that was something else he'd found out about the boy, he might’ve been sad, and pitiful, but sometimes he could be a real smart-ass.

But Billy liked it…

“WHuuuuuh,” he gasped.

“What?” Spencer questioned, looking around confused.

“You look adorable in my hoodie!!”

Spencer's cheeks turned red, but he tried to look as annoyed as possible.

The taller boy wanted to hug him, but knew it probably wasn't the best thing to do at the moment, so he just ended up being really jumpy for a while, since there was no way to get rid of the sudden energy.

The two of them spent a lot longer than they should have in the store, Billy stopped to play with the big, bouncy balls for a while, and then was stuck in the electronics department trying to decide which CD to get (only to end up buying nothing)

They ended up buying two sandwiches, water bottles, and a blue blanket since Spencer was, apparently, sensitive to the cold.

Once they exited the store, they stood there silently-bag in Billy's left hand, and Spencer wrapped loosely in the blanket- unsure of where to go next...

“Why don't we try that park,” Billy suggested, pointing across the street.

But it was more of a statement than a question because he didn't wait for an answer before grabbing Spencer's hand, and leading him to the park.

It was pretty dark, all they had were the streetlights, and the moon as light.

They made their way to a spot under a tree, Spencer laid out the blanket, and the two of them had a little midnight picnic.

The wind blew again, sending Billy's hair flying in all directions.

“Hope the wind doesn't blow a spider down from its web up there,” Spencer joked, looking up at the tree.

“What!” Billy, almost, choked out, standing up from where he sat.

The smaller boy smirked.

“Yea, Spiders live up in trees, one could just,” he gestured the falling motion with his finger, “right on your head.”

He then watched in amazement as Billy, maniacally, ran his hands through his hair.

“I'm sorry, I'm kidding,” he said softly with a smile.

“Wah.!”

“Yea, I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but those little guys are pretty strong, so it's unlikely.”

“I don't like bugs,” Billy whined, sitting cross-legged across from spencer. He ran a final hand through his hair, sighed, rested his chin in said hand, and picked at the grass with his other.

“A lot of them are pretty harmless as long as you leave them alone,” Spencer explained, eyeing the spot where Billy was fiddling with the grass.

“You sure know a lot about bugs,” Billy pointed out, focusing his gaze on the boy across from him.

“Not really,” Spencer explained, looking up at the sky, “sometimes I just wonder about things… so I research ‘em.”

Billy suddenly felt warm inside, being here with Spencer like this made him feel warm.

He closed his eyes and smiled, shook his head slightly, and laid back with an arm under his head.

“Come on, Spence, let's look at the stars,” he then said, nodding to the spot beside him.

The brunette crawled over next to him, and sat in one of those poses that are really simple, but hard to explain where you cross your legs, and have your arms out behind you to hold you up, and looked up at the sky.

And even though Billy's attention should've been on the stars, it wasn't, it was on Spencer. How his brown hair fell so naturally, and how big the hoodie was on him -it was oversized for Billy, but Billy was noticeably bigger than Spencer, so just imagine how it looked on him (which was adorable)- and how his stained jeans fit his thighs so perfectly, but got looser as his legs continued, and his shoes, how his shoes looked so wonderfully trashy. He was the perfect little trash boy, he looked like he was made to live a life on the streets, and Billy loved it.

And then how his glasses just sat on his face, keeping those beautiful green eyes (that Billy still hadn't found a word for) caged away.

“Spence,” Billy called out. 

The brunette looked at him, and then his heart jumped a little.

“Do you actually need glasses to see, or is it just an occasional thing?” he then asked.

It was a stupid question, he knew that, he'd never seen Spencer without his glasses the past few weeks that'd been together, but he wanted a small ounce of Spencer's attention right now.

“Ahh, yea,” Spencer sighed, looking at the ground, “ I need them to see, or I'd be blind as a bat, but not really because they're not actually blind.”

Billy laughed. “Is that another ‘I was curious, so I researched it’ thing?”

Spencer smiled, and Billy thought it was the first time he'd actually seen him smile that wasn't caused by embarrassment, pity, or him being a smartass.

And then he smiled himself.

“Come on, Spence,” he called, tugging on the boy's arm, “let's go to sleep.”

And there were lots of reasons why Spencer should have protested- such as ‘this is kind of illegal’- but he didn’t.

So he laid down on his side, facing Billy, and tucked his arms and knees inside the hoodie.

“Billy,” he called out.

“Yea.”

“Could you take my glasses off.”

“You usually sleep with them on, though,” Billy noted, reaching for the glasses.

“I usually don't sleep on grass either,” Spencer explained, squeezing his eyes shut.

Billy smiled, touched a hand to Spencer's knee, like he did every night to make sure he was there since Spencer wasn't very touchy unless he was in a bad mood, and they fell asleep on grass like the trash boyfriends they were (or will be, #spoiler)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe I should change the name of this story to trash boyfriends.


	11. Alternative: How it started

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Original story beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was an alternative beginning to the story I found from a few months ago when I first started it, I quite like this one a lot, and am not sure why I changed it, but I figured I should just publish it just. The first few paragraphs of the beginning of the story are the same, it changes once Spencer gets into Shanilla’s car.

Spencer looked at himself in the mirror: brown hair, stupid glasses, freckles on his nose; he looked completely ordinary, except for is eyes. Yep his eyes were the only thing that stood out on him, his stupid hazel-green eyes. Yes, according to the internet green eyes were the rarest eye colour in the world, and he should feel special, but he hated them.

“Spencer, hurry up, you're not the only one that uses a bathroom y’know,” a voice said from behind the door, interrupting his thoughts. He sighed, splashing water on his face.

Morning were always like this, they were always annoying. Spencer was always the first one up, but his stupid brain kept him in the bathroom for hours, thinking about unimportant things. By now it was routine, he'd wake up and go for a wizz, and he'd stay there until Jessica came banging on the door. He'd look at his stupid face and think of how stupid he was. Maybe that's why he always went to school in a bad mood.

He'd open the bathroom door only to be met with angry green eyes, almost identical to his own- if eyes weren't already identical- the two of them would glare at each other until Jessica decided to mutter something about him needing a girlfriend, and then push past him.

It happened everyday, he was beginning to tire of it. He opened the bathroom door, but this time he walked right past Jessica, back into his own room; he didn't want to deal with this, not today at least.

He glanced around the room and noticed everything that was always there, but never really paid attention to; the red walls that were almost completely hidden behind movie posters, a shelf in the left corner filled with movies, and a shelf in the right filled with everything else- books, videos games, those dolls that Jessica swore were dolls, but were actually action figures, and countless pieces of paper. He glanced to his desk; very plain and wooden with an equally plain lamp sitting on top, and his laptop, which had a collection of stickers stuck on random places.

He wondered. He wondered if those jerks at school were right, he was going to be 18 soon, but his room still looked vaguely similar to the way it did when he was 10. A world full of cameras and films; video games and anime, special effects and movie props, would he really grow up to be some lonely geek? Still living in his parents basement, chasing this childish dream he had, to one day make movies and be on the big screen? What did his future hold for him, would he really be going to film school? Could he even get in?

Suddenly he heard a noise, it was a beep- no a horn, the sound of a car horn, and it sounded a lot like Shanilla’s. _It couldn't be- could it?_

Spencer doubtfully looked at his watch, _there's no way it's 7 yet_ , but sure enough the clock read 07:05.

_Shit!_

He quickly grabbed a pair of jeans from his floor - they probably hadn't been washed in weeks- and a big ass Adventure Time t- shirt his grandma had bought him 2 years ago, insisting he'd ‘grow into it’. Apparently she also had a hard time remember how old he was. 

He stuck his feet halfway into his worn out converse, grabbed his bag, and ran out the door.

“Just woke up?” Shanilla asked once the boy was in the car.

“No,” he answered nervously. 

“Oh, so that's just your new look then?” she questioned again, gesturing towards his hair.

“I like it,” Rajeev chimed in from the seat beside her.

“Yea, yea.” The boy responded. 

“We're gonna be late again Spencer,” Shanilla reminded. 

“And it's all your fault, again,” Rajeev joked.

Spencer knew he was just joking, but he still felt bad.

“Just shut up, and drive,” Spencer groaned, crossing his arms.

Spencer always wondered if schools sent out some sort of depression wave that instantly made people feel terrible the closer they got a it, and then he'd wonder if he was the only one that felt it.

He made his way to the locker he'd shared with Shanilla and Rajeev, only a realise that he'd forgotten his book at home, so not only was he going to be late, but he'd also be unprepared.

_Great._

He paced outside the classroom, he could just skip the class, right? Except he physically couldn't, his body wouldn't let him, so he did the logical thing : attempted to walk in unnoticed.

“Mr. Wright,” the teacher, Mr. Bonds, called, “you’re late again.”

“Now I usually just ignore it,” he continued, “but it's been happening so many times lately.”

Spencer mentally stabbed himself.

“Is everything alright?”

And maybe it was luck, or something else, but before Spencer had the chance to answer, someone else walked through the door.

“Ahh, Mr. Cohen, I was just telling our friend Spencer here about the importance of being on time, and then you walk in,” the teacher says.

Billy gave an awkward smile, and then the 3 of them stood there awkwardly, glancing at each other until Mr. Bonds sighed.

“I hope you two won't be late for detention this Saturday,” he added, allowing the two of them to a down.

Reason number 5 why today was a shit day.

“Thanks for making us late again,” Shanilla joked later at lunch.

“Yea..” Spencer started, “Sorry.” She was probably mad, or at least that's what Spencer thought, but what he didn't know was that she couldn't be angry at him even if she wanted to.

Every since that day they'd met 3 years ago at freshman connection she'd been hopelessly infatuated with him.

“Oooo, what's for lunch?” Rajeev blurted, walking up to the table empty handed.

“How about where's _your_ lunch?” Shanilla asked.

“Well y’see,” Rajeev began, but by then Spencer had stopped listening, he took a bite out of his sandwich and his mind was consumed by pointless thoughts.

**….**

He awoke took a loud alarm.

“Shit!” he muttered, covering his face with a pillow.

He then glared at his clock, it read 7:10 . He had only 5 minutes to get a school, 5 to actually get ready, and 3 for a drive there- it wasn't going to work though. 

It took him at least 15 minutes to get ready-gotta have that healthy glow- and school was about 8 minutes away, 5 on a good day, 15 on a bad day. That means he had approximately 0 minutes to get ready; he was going to be late.

He sat in his bed, going through all these things in his head, which was just wasting more time.

He hopped out of bed, and grabbed some jeans out of his drawer, and quickly made his way to the bathroom.

He turned on the shower, pissed, brushed his teeth, washed his face and hair, and managed to get something that should've taken 10 minutes done in 5 (progress)

He dried off quickly, pulled his jeans up, put on his favourite green hoodies, and then slipped his feet into black sneakers.

Walking on the backs of his shoes, he grabbed his bag and keys, and made his way to his van.

He'd named it Viper, a few years ago he'd got from some junkyard workers that he'd been on good terms with. He had them fix it up for him for a small amount of money, and now it was like his best friend, besides his guitar.

He felt something drip on his arms, and realised he hadn't dried his hair, which in terms of the wetness wasn't a big deal, he could just let down all the windows and air dry it. It was the hair itself. Billy had naturally curly hair, (it was more wavy than curly, but closer to curly) which didn't work with him.

Once he put the car in gear, he let down all the windows, and attempted to comb through his hair, but this got him stopped by the police, which resulted in him getting a ticket, he had a lot of those, which would later get his license suspended since he had so many.

Many minutes later he'd finally arrived at the school. It amazed him how many people made it to school late on a daily basis. He'd done it multiple times a week, but on this particular day, things were different.

Mr. Bonds decided to give him detention, it would be his first, like really? Detention for being late? That was like going to jail for sleeping in the park: pointless. He wanted to do something big, but alas there was no way around it.

He stopped outside the door, he could just skip the period and then he wouldn't technically be considered late, he'd just have an absence.

He smirked to himself, shoved his hands in his pocket and turned around.

“Ahh, Mr. Cohen?” the voice said. It was Ponzi.

“And why are we walking away from class?”

“Uhh, you see, I was just looking for my,” he paused momentarily, “my earring.”

He grabbed his ear, and began searching the ground for something that wasn't there.

Ponzi eyed the boy suspiciously, and after a while of Watching him search aimlessly on the ground yelled. “Just get to class.”

 _Busted._

So this was it, this is how he was gonna go down, he'd gotten away with a countless number pranks, but being late for class is what would get him, it was only an hour, but still.

He laughed ironically, and opened the classroom door.

He walked in to see everyone already staring, but it wasn't at him, it was at that nerdy kid that never said anything.

Now was his chance, the gods were being godly, and sending him help. He slowly got close to the wall, and

“Ahh, Mr. Cohen, I was just telling our friend Spencer here about the importance of being on time, and then you walk in.”

_Busted once more._

He gave an awkward smile, and started awkwardly between the boy now known as Spencer, and Mr. Bonds.

Mr. Bonds then sighed, and gestured for the two of them to sit down.

“I hope you two won't be late for detention this Saturday,” he added, and then they sat.

He watched the boy go all the way to the back of the class and sit, he looked nervous.

He then focused his attention to the front of the class.

“So on page 113,” the teacher started, but Billy'd had an idea.

_Maybe that's why…_

He glanced back at the boy, and sure enough he didn't have his book out.

Once the teacher's back was turned, he got up quietly, and walked over to where Spencer sat, handing him his book.

The boy looked confused, but mumbled a thanks, and with that he made his way back to his seat before Mr. Bonds was able to see.

He raised his hand quietly, and waited for the teacher to turn around. 

“Yes, Mr. Cohen?”

“I uh, left my book at home, so can I borrow one.”

Disrupting the class, and being late, Billy was just getting into all types of trouble today, maybe the gods were out to get him instead..

**….**

He had to keep quiet about it, the detention. He couldn't let anyone know it was because he'd gotten to school late too many times, it'd be hilariously embarrassing.

He'd never hear the end of it from Jessica, every morning she'd make a joke, or some sort of reference to it. And he couldn't let that happen or he'd probably end up stabbing himself. 

He stood in his room, looking at himself in the mirror. His stupid beat up shoes, those faded jeans, and that stupid shirt that he loved even though it was too buh and he was 17, and was probably far too old for cartoons (I feel ya, child). He wanted to laugh at himself.

But then he noticed something; he still had that guy's book.

What was that even about? He tried not to make a big deal out of it, but they'd never even ran in the same crew, they lived in completely different worlds, his full of animation and horror and film effects, and his probably a world of rock concerts and smoking and hot girls.

Forcing himself to think about something else he replaced his book with the guys book, he'd return it when he got to detention.

“I'm going.. out,” Spencer yelled, holding the book tight in his arms.

“Where ya going sweetie?” his mother called, sticking her head from behind the wall that lead to their kitchen.

“Library, with Shanilla and Rajeev,” he lied.

He hopped on the bus, taking a seat in the front, the back was where the rowdy teenagers sat, and even though he too was a teenager, not that kind.

He sat the book down on his lap, much to his dismay, but it was ‘proper bus etiquette’ and he didn't really feel like being silently judged by strangers because of something he had control over.

Still though, no one ever sat next to him, which both offended and pleased him at the same time.

Nevertheless, Spencer liked bus rides. There was something amazing about being a place where no one knew your name or your story, it made him feel both content, and terrified- but I liked it.

Once he arrived at the school he was surprised to not feel that pang of sadness, and even better; the halls were empty.

He felt nothing for only a moment because then he was met with the door, he was afraid to open it, who knew what lied beyond it.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, temporarily, and opened the door.

When he opened them he mentally sighed, the room wasn't filled with angry faces, or gangbangers, or thugs, or stoners like in the movies; everyone just looked bored.

He decided to sit at the front of the room, away from everyone else to prevent any unwanted company, on others part, not his.

Spencer hated these unorganized room seat arrangements. He preferred being assigned a seat, that way if the person you sat by didn't like you it wasn't your fault, it was just how it was, but in situations like these, you could only blame yourself.

Another surprise was how unrowdy everyone was. There were no paper balls being thrown or yelling, or crying teachers, the teacher sat quietly in front of the room, and the students sat quietly in their seats. 

They were free to do anything they pleased as long as it didn't cause any noise, it was actually kind of relaxing.

A few minutes later the guy from class the other day walked in.

Spencer found it a bit funny, he'd gotten detention for being late, and he was late for detention, though only a few minutes.

Their eyes met momentarily, and Billy took a seat in the next row, one desk behind Spencers.

He thought for a moment to give the book back now, but quickly trashed the idea since it would probably get him into trouble, so he sat there.

It soon occurred to him just how short an hour really was. _What could be done in an hour?_ Not much.

1) You could watch 2 television shows, or 4 depending on the duration, but compared to a whole season that wasn't much.

2) You could watch a movie, but you wouldn't be able to even finish it in that amount of time.

3) you could listen to quite a bit of songs in an hour, but that's kind of a waste of time.

4) you could go to a concert for an hour, but if the concert was only an hour it wasn't really worth going to.

5) You could write maybe 10? pages of script in an hour, not counting the revising.

6) You could read a book in an hour if you were an fast reader, or a 4th, if you read slow.

7) You could have a nap.

8) you could build a bookshelf.

9) You could have sex (which he didn't really like to think about, but it's true)

10) You could do maybe a load or two of laundry.

11) You could start editing a video (you wouldn't finish though)

12) You could cook a meal

He continued naming things in his head, and before he knew it detention was over

You could compile a list of things you can do in an hour in an hour.

“Uh, hey,” a voice said, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“Detentions over.”

It was the guy.

“Oh,” Spencer said, he fumbled with picking up the book, and then handed it to the boy.

“Thanks again,” he said.

“Oh, yea. I forgot about that, but it's no biggie,” the boy said, grabbing the book.

“See ya around,” he said, and then left.

The bus ride back home made Spencer realise something; detention was a gift from a higher being. Sitting in silence for a hour was a real refresher, it was almost as if nothing existed for a while, and sometimes, maybe, people needed that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not really canon, but i liked it. Maybe it can be a thing before the beginning of the first chapter? I dunno.


	12. Apple Cider, I Don't Mind

She walked down the street, warm air blowing in her face. She made it to the corner and stared at the lamppost- there was a picture of Spencer on it.

She got a weird feeling in her chest, that feeling you get when you suddenly realise you're going to die someday, and then you mentally freak out- that's how Jessica felt, except it wasn't her, it was her brother.

She closed her eyes, and ripped the flyer off the lamppost, crumpled it, and stuffed it in her pocket.

Her mother was the one that put them up, those stupid flyers with the words "have you seen me," tears filled her eyes.

 _No_ , she thought.

Her brother was not going to become another kid in the newspaper, or on the back of a milk carton that seemed to never be found, but he'd come back safely.

He'd come back through that door, and then she'd punch him in the arm, and he'd be confused, but she'd do it again, and again, and then she'd probably insult him, and then she'd smile, and then he'd get it. He'd get it without her even having to say it, and everything would go back to normal.

She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, and made her way to a place she'd been going to a lot lately.

She knocked on the door, annoyed for some reason, and stood. She was contemplating leaving, her body was ready to take off in the opposite direction, but she couldn't bring herself to.

Things were bad at home, things were worse at school, but she couldn't just sit around doing nothing.

"Jess?" a voice said from the door.

She looked up to see Rajeev.

 _Oh great_. She always hated when he answered the door.

She stared at him with her eyes squinted, and he stared at her with his lips pouted, and they kinda just stared at each other for a small period of time- they always did that.

"Look," he started, "I could stand here all day and do this, I really could."

They'd done it before.

"But I don't think either of us are in the mood for this, so why don't we call a truce for now?"

He stuck his hand out hopefully.

He _was_ right though, why make things worse than they had to be?

So, she gave a small smile, and bumped a fist at his hand instead.

**…**

"So," Spencer started, "what's up with you and snakes?"

He and Billy were sitting in a park, and the sun was going down.

"Wha ooo ya ean?" the boy asked, he'd just shoved some food in his mouth, you could say the two of them were having a picnic dinner, there was just no blanket. Or basket. Or little cut up pieces of fruit.

Spencer scoffed in amusement, "I mean: you call your truck 'Viper' and you call yourself 'The Cobra'; if you didn't know those are both kinda snake-ie."

"Ohhh!" Billy yelled, he sounded like Spencer had just revealed the answer to a really easy riddle, or something.

"Well, when I was a kid I had this pet snake- he was a viper- and after getting him I kinda became interested in snakes-so I started doin' some research on snakes- y'know to make sure he had a good, healthy life- and then I stumble across a Cobra," he stopped here to take a sip of soda.

"And you were taken away by its beauty, so you decided to call yourself that?" Spencer guessed.

"Nope," Billy shook his head, "I guess I got kinda obsessed with the things, so my friends started calling me 'Cobra Boy', and then when I got into music & stuff I definitely needed a stage name- the best rock stars _always_ have a stage name- but 'Cobra Boy' just wasn't gonna cut it, it was deffo _not_ cool, so I just went with _'The Cobra'_ instead."

Spencer smiled.

"It's not funny!" Billy yelled.

"I wasn't laughing," Spencer explained, even though now he was laughing.

"You are!" Billy yelled again, pointing.

"That wasn't it," Spencer said, slinging himself backwards into the grass, it looked like it hurt, but he wasn't phased at all.

"I like learning things about you," he said. "I guess it made me happy."

Billy's heart jumped, he didn't know what to say.

Suddenly, Spencer sat up. "Do you think they're looking for me?" he asked, as if the thought had just popped into his head, but it probably hadn't.

Billy began to feel lots of things inside his body, why'd he have to change the subject so suddenly? They could've just continued to talk about his reasons for doing things.

"Of course not," he heard Spencer say as he laid back down, an arm under his head.

"I mean they haven't even called," he muttered.

By this time Billy figured the words were no longer aimed at him, and more of a way for Spencer to get things off of his mind.

But maybe Billy needed to get some things off his mind too.

 _Should I tell him_ , He thought. He thought long and hard,and eventually came up with the answer 'no'. He'd surely lose Spencer if he did, right?. And- and it's _definitely_ their fault Spencer left, right? And they should've taken better care of him, yeah? And sure it was _sorta_ terrible of him to block all their numbers (mind you it was a tedious mission) but if they really cared they'd surely find a way, somehow, to get in contact with him, _right?_ They just weren't trying hard enough, they never were, and that's why they lost him in the first place, but Billy- _he_ was gonna do things right.

"Billy," he heard faintly. He jumped slightly, and focused his attention on Spencer.

"It's getting kinda late, let's go back to the truck."

He nodded, gathered his trash, and they two of them made their way back to their less than humble abode.

**…**

They'd bought lots of blankets- not to sleep under, but on, as sleeping on the hard floor of any type of vehicle for almost two months was bad on the back.

There were also a ton of pillows- it's what they spent most of their money on (besides gas)- Billy was kind of a cuddler, he usually cuddled his guitar, but that had to change for multiple reasons.

1\. Spencer moved around in his sleep- a lot- so on more than one occasion he'd woken up with the feeling of his arm, leg, or something being hit on the guitar.

2\. When Billy slept with the thing he usually slept with the strings facing outward, so when Spencer would hit said body part on the guitar it would usually be on the strings, which caused a very rude awakening.

3\. Spencer just found it kinda strange, not to mention dangerous, to be sleeping with a giant, wooden instrument in the bed.

(4. There were also those rare occasions when Spencer would wake up in Billy arms, and because of how god awfully awkward that was he didn't want it ever happening again, but we won't talk about that one)

So eventually they just stockpiled pillows, it wasn't like they costed too much, so why not? You can never have too many pillows, right?

The other majority of their money was spent on food (kinda obvious) Spencer didn't eat much, but Billy was used to eating a whole lot, and since they didn't have a refrigerator (or a the money for one) they ate out (which was rare) or they only bought small amounts (i.e. half a sandwich, and a drink for Spencer, and that plus more for Billy). Of course they needed to buy food every day, multiple times a day, and yea that added up.

And at the end of the day they had a nice little life together. Spencer worked part time at a handful of stores around the town, and since Billy couldn't drive he'd also gotten a job at some of those places. On weekends Billy would go out and play for profit, and in their free time they'd usually spend out in parks, and doing other non money spending things- together- and they were okay, even if only temporarily.


	13. Not really

Billy awoke to eyes on him. He saw green eyes, Spencer's eyes, eyes that didn't have a name.

And then he saw Spencer's face turn red, and the green eyes disappeared, and he smiled.

"Can't sleep?" he asked. But then realised that he could see, and it wasn't night anymore, so he was wrong.

"Oh, it's morning."

"No, the light's just on," Spencer mumbled, opening his eyes one at a time. It was sometime during the middle of the night.

"I just got up kinda early... that's all," he explained, turning on his back.

Billy scoffed an "oh really" but kept his gaze on the boy beside him. There was a weird feeling in his body. Was it guilt? Infatuation? Admiration? Sadness? Happiness? Hunger? All of these things? None of them? He didn't know.

"Do you miss them?" he then asked, but he wasn't really sure why though, he didn't know if he wanted the answer. What if Spencer said yes? Would that even change things?

"I do," Spencer finally said. And Billy died a little inside.

"But, I don't miss the feelings."

He buried himself under the blanket they shared, there was no way he could ever say what he wanted all out in the open like this- he needed a barrier.

"At home I just feel…. like.. bad." He peeked at Billy.

"With you," he paused, "I don't feel like a burden." He pulled the blanket back over his face.

He heard shuffling, and then felt weight on his legs. Slowly, he pulled the blanket down halfway and was met with Billy's eyes.

Billy grabbed his hands, and tugged the blanket down, revealing Spencer's red cheeks.

"You're definitely not a burden, dude."

His cheeks got redder. _Thanks biology._

"So please don't ever feel like you are."

Red. Red. Red. _That's great._

"I'm sorry everyone can't see how awesome you are."

He could feel his heart beating. _Fuck._

"But…. I hope I'm good enough."

Blood wouldn't stop rushing to his cheeks. _You definitely are._

Billy hesitated a moment.

"C- can I kiss you?"

He nodded slightly. _Is this a threat?_

That's what Billy was, wasn't he?

And then he felt something against his lips.

And he felt the butterflies, and all those other things that were supposed to happen.

"I'm sorry," Billy whispered, but Spencer didn't know what for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so ur probably wondering why this is so short, well I got lazy, and my creativity is going down the drain. This little story is coming to an end, and I'm just fresh out of ideas for something bigger. The next few chapters are gonna be little short ones like this that lead up to the final chapter(s) just of their daily domestic lives, mostly just fluff.
> 
> I'm also starting my final year of hs soon, so I'm gonna be stuck with so many projects (one that I should've been working on this summer but didnt) So the next chapter might not be out for a long long time until I'm done with this current project (it's not due til I think january, or somewhere around there), I just wanted to let you guys know it'll probably be a while. I'll try to finish before I start school, but if not..
> 
> As always, thanks a lot for reading, it means a bunch, see ya!!


	14. Skinny Veins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, how've you been? Looks like im back lol. Sorry if there are any inconsistencies with the rest fo the story before. I didn't reread the story before working on this because im sort of lazy and just wanted to hop back into the writing. Enjoy and so sorry for the wait, its been like over a year, goodness. Are people even still reading this?

He should've been asleep, but instead he was awake. Awake thinking about life, his life in particular, and how things ended up the way they had. Billy was out, doing some “official rockstar bizz” as he liked to call it, and Spencer was here.

They say it only takes a month to make a habit, and Billy and Spencer had been together for 2 months, so maybe sleeping together kind of became an unexpected habit, and even though Spencer didn't know it, Billy being gone was part of the reason he wasn't asleep right now.

His mind went over everything, the stupid things he'd said and done, and regretted, and the times things didn't work out because of him, and he wished he could change them all somehow, but when it came to Billy he didn't want to change anything.

He'd thought about it over and over again, and knowing what he did now, he'd go on this whole stupid journey again with that boy-and he wouldn't change a thing.

Eventually a thought popped up in his head: if he hadn't been late that day 2 months ago would he even be here right now? Would he and Billy have even been in each others lives? Would he still have been Billy's choice to go on this whole thing with? Or would Billy have asked someone else?

And then he thought about why Billy even invited him in the first place. Was he the only one Billy’d asked, and if so why? COuld he have just as easily been replaced by someone else? Did Billy actually like him? They did kiss, but still. Did that mean Billy liked him? Did Billy kiss lots of boys? Did Billy kiss girls as well? Did he actually like Billy? 

He was then startled by thunder. Oh yea, it's raining, he remembered. He sighed and attempted to lay flat on his back, staring at the ceiling (or roof, if you must).

He attempted to clear his mind…

and..

listen… to the rain.

It was nice.

He sat up, and stared out the window, he could see blurred lights from the other side. 

Hopping over the back seat, he opened the sunroof letting rain fall into the car, and slowly climbed out onto the roof. It was slippery, but he eventually situated himself on his back, blocking the opening.

He closed his eyes, and let the rain hit his face, he'd had experience with being out in the rain, he usually liked to sit under trees, but this time he wanted to try something different. 

He laid there for a long time, literally washing away all his worries for a temporary amount of time, he only opened his eyes when he stopped feeling rain on his face.  
He saw Billy's eyes staring back at him, and an umbrella. 

“Did you walk all the way here?”

“What’re you doing?”

They each said it in unison, and then laughed.

“More like hitchhiked, but yea,” Billy eventually answered.

He stared at Spencer for what felt like forever, each second making the other boy more nervous until he realised Billy was waiting for an answer to his question. “Oh, u-uh I was just,” he stuttered sitting up, but because he was Spencer, and things were fated to go wrong because the world was against him, he'd miscalculated the distance between them, and ended up knocking his head into Billy's.

He groaned, covering his face with his hands.

Billy laughed, laying his face in Spencer's wet hair.

“It's okay,” he whispered.

“Looks like we're gonna have to visit the laundromat,” Billy joked, taking off his shirt and replacing it with a dry one, once they’d gotten back into Viper.

They'd basically been living in this truck for 2 months, so not being fully clothed in front of each other became something they’d gotten used to.

Spencer laughed half-heartedly, beginning to change out of his wet clothes. “So is everything okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“Ahh,” he thought for a moment, he didn't want to sound intruding, or needy.

“I mean, whatever you had to take care of, y’know,” he mumbled.

“Oh, yea, dude! Everything's peachy.”

Spencer glanced at Billy with a worried look, not believing him, but decided to leave it alone. Besides, Spencer was the only one here all worried and stuff. He was just an anxious guy, that’s all… right?

“You miss me,” Billy asked, wrapping a towel around Spencer’s head in an attempt to dry his hair off.

“You’re hair’s so straight,” he marveled in amazement,” unlike this tangled mess on my head.”

“Shut up,” Spencer remarked quietly trying not to smile. “Besides, I think your hair is pretty cool too when its not straight.”

“ONLY WHEN ITS NOT STRAIGHT,” Billy cried in horror.

“It’snicewhenit’straighttoo,” Spencer replied quickly, trying to calm the taller boy down.

Billy smiled and laid down on his back, propping his head up with both his arms.

“Everything is okay though, right,” Spencer asked for reassurance.

“Of course dude-bro! Everything’s smooth, come on let’s sleep now.”

He pulled on Spencer’s hand, dragging the smaller boy down next to him.

**….**

The next morning the two of them were out on the road again. They’d lost track of where they’d been. All the cities they’d passed through on their ride to where they were now, all the things they were able to see, it was something you could get used to.

“Spence! Spence! Spence,” Billy shouted.

“LOOK AT THAT!”

It was a pet adoption thing. One of those pop up adoption places that are usually in parking lots.

“THERE ARE PUPPIES.”

“I’ve always been more of a ca-,” Spencer began.

“LETS GO!”

So they decided to go visit the adoption.

“Billy, look at me,” Spencer said seriously. He put his hands on the taller boys shoulder and stared him right in the eyes.

“No matter how bad you want, you know we don’t have space, or money for a dog right?”

“Of course broski,” Billy assured scoffing.

**….**

“So, you do understand that a pet is a big responsibility right,” the adoption lady asked in a cheery voice.

“Yup,” Billy responded with a smile.

Spencer stood behind them with his face in his hand.

“Great, so because she’s a puppy you’re gonna have to get her shots updated, she’s all good for now, but in a few months you should take her in to get these,” the woman pointed to the names on a piece of paper, “she’s one of our older ones, so you won't need to get them as frequently in about a year, but for now just make sure to keep up.”

“You betcha!”

“Alright well, if that’s all, no questions, I’ll let you on your way.”

The woman bid them goodbye with their new puppy, and they were on their way.

“Billy! I just said we didn't have the space or money for a dog and what do you do? You get a dog,” Spencer scolded.

“We can barely take care of ourselves and now you want a-,” he stopped as Billy put the dog in his face. She looked at him with her little puppy eyes and he no longer wanted to talk.

She licked his face.

Spencer sighed. “Okay, what are we naming her?”

“You pick,” Billy decided, rubbing her black and white, curly head.

Spencer thought for a while and then said “Chrysanthemum.”

“Mum for short.”

“Ahh! That’s the fluffy looking flower right,” Billy noted.

“I’m just going to assume we’re both on the same page here, so yes.” Spencer gave a smile, and the two of them walked happily back to their mobile home.

“This is gonna be so cool, we’re like a little family now!” Billy’d said without thinking, rubbing the new pup behind her floppy ears.

They were sitting side by side in their makeshift bedroom, with their backs up against the wall of the car.

Spencer smiled to himself, he had to admit that the thought made him happy. Spending the rest of his life travelling with Billy seemed like a good life. Of course they’d have so much more to go through if this became a permanent living arrangement, but who cares?

Maybe they’d never settle, maybe they’d just keep driving and driving until they’d seen every hidden corner the United States had to offer.

He could see it now, a life full of part-time jobs, temporary homes and people, but he’d always have Billy. Right?

He wondered what his family was doing without him. None of them had even tried to call, he’d been missing for over a month and nothing. Rajeev and Shanilla didn't even try to contact him.

Perhaps his life was full of people who didn't care about him, and he honestly didn’t know if Billy cared about him, but he seemed to, and right now that was the only thing getting Spencer through life at the moment.

He couldn't imagine what would happen if he’d lost Billy, he would truly be alone then, he’d have nothing left to live for.

“Hey Spence, you oaky,” Billy asked, removing him from his thoughts. “You lookin’ a little,” he paused, “disturbed.”

“Oh, yea im-” Spencer hesitated, staring back at his friend. He smiled, “Im definitely okay.”

Though, neither of them were 100% sure whether that sentence was true or not.

Billy smiled anyway, turning towards him, he placed a hand on Spencer’s knee.

“Y’know, im not sure if I ever thanked you for all that you’ve done for me. I get that this can be a little...” he paused to think of the word. He settled for “anxiety-inducing.”

“... but it’s something I’ve always wanted to experience, I can really see my life just being full of this everyday, and I’d be happy with that. So thank you, so much, for helping me make my dream come true.”

Billy was looking at him in a way unfamiliar to him, like nothing he’d ever seen before, but it felt so nice.

Spencer swallowed, hard, his heart was beating really fast. He felt like he was going to cry, and he did.

Billy gave a small laugh and wrapped his arms around the sad little soft boy, pulling him in for a hug.

Had they ever hugged before? Spencer couldn't remember (neither can I, lol sorry), but that didn't really matter right now because either way, this would ultimately become his favourite moment with Billy.

Billy pulled away, briefly wiping his face with the back of his sleeve before placing it onto Spencers other shoulder.

He smiled at Spencer again with that face he’d never seen before. “I’m so lucky to have met you,” he said, barely above a whisper.

Spencer didn’t know what to say or do, so he just stared at the boy. and much to his pleasure, slowly but surely their lips met.

There was still one, burning, question that Spencer wanted answered, but he didn't want to ask it. Not now. He was afraid of the answer, and he wanted to keep this, moments like these, for as long as he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, thanks so much for reading. I dunno when the next chapter will be out, so sorry, but at last this story is coming to an end. The next chapter out will probably be the last one and then its over.I hope you guys enjoy the ending, I've had it done for a long time, I just didn't have the events leading up to it, so I'm finally working on that. I don't want to drone the story out much longer, so yea. I hope it doesn't seem like im rushing things for the end of this. The next chapter will more likely be pretty short as well, unless I get some ideas for more domestic Billy and Spencer. I would like to explore more fluff between the two of them though before its all over, grocery shopping maybe, taking care of Mum, so perhaps I'll work on some of those before releasing the ending, or I can just do it after its all done. Take care!


End file.
